T
hings were in a hellacious uproar across southeast Arizona and southwest New Mexico. The U.S. Army and Army scouts had been charging all over after renegade Apaches. Most folks had brought their families in from their ranches to the small towns in the area under the threat of more Apache attacks. Others set up fortifications at their home ranches and were armed to the teeth to withstand any attacks. Burl Waller had gone into Tombstone for supplies and was headed back to his ranch with a swift team of horses hitched on his buckboard. No grass was growing under those ponies’ hooves when he rounded a corner and about ran over a prone body in the road. His quick action avoided hitting the figure on the ground and he stood up and hauled the lathered team to a stop. Who was it? He wrapped up his reins, drew his Colt .44, just in case, and jumped down to see if they were even alive. He found the person was wrapped in a blanket and when he turned her over, he discovered she was a young, pale-faced, unconscious woman. With the hair on the back of his neck standing up, he
looked over the chaparral country. Nothing moved or showed themselves. He holstered his handgun, swept her up and put her in the back between his supplies. Who was she? She had no blood on her, nor did she look beat up. How did she get out there? She didn’t wake up during his transfer. Maybe at Childers’s Crossing someone would know where she belonged. He was back on the spring seat wondering who, why, and where as he slapped the horses on their rumps and sent them southeast. Occasionally, he looked back over his shoulder at her still form. There was not a sign of consciousness in her. She had been breathing and not with much trouble. But he’d be at Childers’s shortly and maybe someone there could answer his questions. He topped the next hill and saw the smoke. That was something on fire. Childers’s had a small store with a saloon at the crossroads between Tombstone and the road to Fort Huachuca. That store ahead must be burning. Damn those redskin bastards, anyway. The raiders would be gone by the time he got there. The tall streak of smoke would draw any army outfit in the desert there immediately.
