tigers,
and capable of undergoing hardships and privations before which any
other people would succumb. They will travel for days without a mouthful
of food, will go for hour after hour through a climate that is like that
of Sahara without a drop of moisture, will climb precipitous mountains
as readily as a slight declivity, will lope across the burning deserts
all day without fatigue, or, if riding one of their wiry ponies, will
kill and eat a portion of them when hunger must be attended to, and then
continue their journey on foot.

If a party of Apache raiders are hard pressed by cavalry, they will
break up and continue their flight singly, meeting at some rendezvous
many miles away, after the discouraged troopers have abandoned pursuit.
They seem as impervious to the fiery heat of Arizona and New Mexico as
salamanders. Tonight they may burn a ranchman's home, massacre him and
all his family, and to-morrow morning will repeat the crime fifty miles
distant.

No men could have displayed more bravery and endurance in running down
the Apaches than the United States cavalry. The metal-work of their
weapons grew so hot that it would blister the bare hands, and for days
the thermometer marked one hundred and twenty degrees.

Captain Bourke, who understands these frightful red men thoroughly,
gives the following description of the Apache:

"Physically, he is perfect; he might be a trifle taller for artistic
effect, but his apparent 'squattiness' is due more to great girth of
chest than to diminutive stature. His muscles are hard as bone, and I
have seen one light a match on the sole of his foot. When Crook first
took the Apache in hand, he had few wants and cared for no luxuries. War
was his business, his life, and victory his dream. To attack a Mexican
camp or isolated village, and run off a herd of cattle, mules, or sheep,
he would gladly travel hundreds of miles, incurring every risk and
displaying a courage which would have been extolled in a historical
novel as having happened in a raid by Highlanders upon Scotchmen; but
when it was _your_ stock, or your friend's stock, it became quite a
different matter. He wore no clothing whatever save a narrow piece of
calico or buckskin about his loins, a helmet also of buckskin,
plentifully crested with the plumage of the wild turkey and eagle, and
long-legged moccasins, held to the waist by a string, and turned up at
the toes in a shield which protected him from stones and the