Cactus and pine Author:Sharlot Mabridth Hall Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: TWO BITS Two Bits was an old race horse well known from Texas to Arizona. He belonged at the time of his death to Lieut. Charles Curtis (now Capt. Curtis, Mil... more »itary Instructor at the University of Wisconsin), who built the first stockade on the site of the present Fort Whipple, Arizona. The incident is true; wounded to his death, the old horse out-ran the Apaches and after his rider, who was severely wounded, fell off, Two Bits went on to Fort Wingate where the sight of his wounds and the bloody pouches told the story. The old horse headed the relief party and led them back to his fallen rider and then dropped dead. The troops, to all of whom the old race horse was a familiar comrade, buried him under a heap of lava bowlders beside the old Government Trail a few miles west of Fort Wingate, New Mexico. Where the shimmering sands of the desert beat In waves to the foothills' rugged line, And cat-claw and cactus and brown mesquite Elbow the cedar and mountain pine; Under the dip of a wind-swept hill, Like a little gray hawk Fort Whipple clung; The fort was a pen of peeled pine logs And forty troopers the army strong. At the very gates when the darkness fell, Prowling Mohave and Yavapai Signalled with shrill coyote yell, Or mocked the night owl's piercing cry; Till once when the guard turned shuddering For a trace in the east of the welcome dawn, Spent, wounded, a courier reeled to his feet:— "Apaches—rising—Wingate—wa)rn !" "And half the troop at the Date Creek Camp!" The Captain muttered; "Those devils heard!" White-lipped he called for a volunteer To ride Two Bits and carry the word. "Alone; it's a game of hide and seek; One man may win where ten would fail." Himself the saddle and cinches set And headed Two Bits for the Verde Trail. ...« less