and only the vultures and eagles
have to hold back. But for the birds there is a side dish on which they
may whet their appetites, beyond reach of the beasts. To their share
fall the two suspended from the trees; and, driven off from the others,
they attack these with beak and talon, flapping around, settling upon
the branches above, on the shoulders of the corpses, thick as honey-bees
upon a branch, pecking out eyes, tearing at flesh, mutilating man--God's
image--in every conceivable mode.

No; there is one left, peculiar to man himself. Strange, at this
crisis, he should appear to give exhibition of it. By pure chance--a
sheer contingency--though not less deserving record.

The beasts and birds while engaged in devouring the dead bodies are
interrupted and scared away from their filthy repast, retreating
suddenly from the ground at sight of their masters--men, who
unexpectedly appear upon it.

These are not the Rangers returning, but a band of Jicarilla Apaches--
young braves out on a roving excursion. They have come down the creek,
making for the Pecos, and so chanced to stray into the deserted camp.

Surprised at the spectacle there presented to their eyes, they are not
the less delighted. More than a dozen dead men, with scalps untaken!
They can see there has been a fight, but do not stay to think who have
been the victors. Their thoughts are turned towards the vanquished,
their eyes resting on heads that still carry their covering of hair. In
a trice their blades are bare, and it is cut off--the skin along with
it--to the skull of the last lancer!

Neither does Uraga nor his lieutenant escape the scalping-knife. Before
the savages part from the spot, the crowns of both show crimson, while
the scalps stripped off appear as trophies on the points of two Apache
spears.

Not long do the Indians dally on the ghastly ground. Soon forsaking it,
they continue on down the creek. Not in pursuit of the party which has
so opportunely furnished them with spear-pennons and fringes for their
leggings. The testimony of so many dead men, with the tracks of so many
horses--horses with large hoofs, evidently not ridden by Mexicans, whom
they contemn, but Texans they terribly fear; these evidences make the
Apaches cautious, and, keeping on towards the Pecos, they go not as
pursuers, but men trying to shun the party that has passed before.

In this they are successful. They never sight the returning Texans, nor
th