evenge. _Vamos_! I must get back to the waggons, or my friend
the Horned Lizard may be taking his pick of the plunder. Luckily these
redskins don't know the different values of the goods; so I shall bestow
the cotton prints with a liberal hand, keeping the better sorts to
myself. And now to assist in the partition of spoils."

So saying, he strode away from the rock, and, gliding back down the
gulch, climbed over the carcass of the dead horse. Then, finding his
own outside, he mounted and rode off to rejoin his red-skinned comrades
engaged in sacking the caravan.

On reaching it a spectacle was presented to his eyes--frightful, though
not to him. For he was a man who had seen similar sights before--one
with soul steeped in kindred crime.

The waggons had been drawn partially apart, disclosing the space
between. The smoke had all ascended or drifted off, and clear sunlight
once more shone upon the sand--over the ground lately barricaded by the
bodies of those who had so bravely defended it. There were thirteen of
them--the party of traders and hunters being in all but fifteen. Of
those slain upon the spot there was not one now wearing his hair. Their
heads were bare and bloody, the crown of each showing a circular disc of
dark crimson colour. The scalping-knife had already completed its work,
and the ghastly trophies were seen impaled upon the points of spears--
some of them stuck upright in the sand, others borne triumphantly about
by the exulting victors. Their triumph had cost them dear. On the
plain outside at least thirty of their own lay extended, stone dead;
while here and there a group bending over some recumbent form told of a
warrior wounded.

By the orders of their chief, some had set about collecting the corpses
of their slain comrades, with the intent of interring them. Others,
acting without orders, still continued to wreak their savage spite upon
the bodies of their white victims, submitting them to further
mutilation. They chopped off their heads; then, poising these on the
points of spears, tossed them to and fro, all the while shouting in
savage glee, laughing with a cacchination that resembled the mirth of a
madhouse.

Withal, there was stern vengeance in its tones. A resistance, they
little expected, causing them such serious loss, had roused their
passions to a pitch of the utmost exasperation; and they tried to allay
their spiteful anger by expending it on the dead bodies of tho