and
thousands of people come down there in all stages of consumption from
the first premonitory cough to the living emaciated skeleton.

The first station west of me was Clear Creek (so called on account of a
good sized stream of water that came down from the Mogollons), and a few
days after I arrived at Blue Field, I heard a message going over the
wires saying that Fred Baird was coming down there to take charge. I had
known him up in Kansas, and his looks and a hacking cough indicated only
too truly, that the dreaded consumption had fastened itself on him;
therefore when I heard of his assignment to Clear Creek, I knew it was
his health that brought him down to that awful country. He had a wife
(and a sweet little woman she was), and two beautiful children, aged two
and four. A few evenings after this I had the pleasure of talking to
them for several minutes as they went through on a slow passenger train,
and I must say that my heart ached when I thought of the town to which
that family was going. What a place to bring a woman? But then women
have a faculty of hanging on to their liege lords under all
circumstances and conditions. God bless 'em. Baird, himself, looked
wretched, being a mere shadow of his former self, but like all
consumptives he imagined he was going to get well.

Just about this time, two Indian gentlemen, named Geronimo and Victoria,
were raising particular mischief all through that section of the
country, and the feeling that any moment they might come down on you and
raise your scalp after puncturing you full of holes was anything but
pleasant. It was decidedly creepy and many a time I wished myself back
in the good old state of Texas. I had come for excitement and adventure
and it was not long until I had both articles doled out to me in large
chunks. Those Indians used to break out from their reservations, swoop
down on some settlement, kill everything in sight and then loot and burn
to their heart's content. There was no warning--just a few shots, then a
shrill war-whoop, and a perfect horde of yelling and shooting red devils
would be upon you. Precautions were taken and some of the larger
settlements were able to stand them off until some of the small army
could come and scatter them. Blue Field had pickets posted every night,
chosen from among the four hundred toughs that lived there, and was
pretty well protected.

They gave us a wide berth for a while, but one night, I was sitting
dozing