Having run down one Apache warrior¹, Corporal Hugg, unmindful of his own personal danger, leaned forward out of the ambulance and shouted and lashed² the furious horse, which was already on a dead run.  
"Go it, good fellow," he yelled, his voice rising above the horrid³ din⁴ of cracking fire arms and whooping⁵ assailants. "Keep it up a little longer, and we shall be clear of the whole crew."
 
They were the last words the brave soldier uttered. Ned Chadmund, who had again crouched⁶ back in the swaying vehicle, was horrified⁷ to see his friend pitch forward upon the foreboard, and then, as the carriage gave one unusually violent plunge⁸, he went out head foremost, and vanished from sight. He had been pierced by a dozen balls, and was dead before he reached the ground.
 
The horse, like his human assailants, was frantic⁹, and abated¹⁰ not a jot¹¹ of his tremendous speed, though the reins¹² fell slack and dangled¹³ around his feet, and the familiar voice was heard no more. He, too, was wounded by more than one cruel rifle ball, but he seemed capable of undergoing far more than his comrades that had fallen at the first fire.
 
The situation of the lad was fearful, and he was in imminent¹⁴ danger from more than one form of death. He was cowering¹⁵ in the bottom of the ambulance, too much terrified to speak or to attempt to help himself in any way. Bruised¹⁶ and stunned¹⁷ by the terrific bounds of the vehicle, he was dazed, bewildered and only dimly conscious of the awful pandemonium¹⁸ reigning¹⁹ around him. Suddenly he felt himself lifted in the air; then there was a crushing and grinding, as if he was being ground to atoms between two millstones, then another terrible crash and his senses forsook²⁰ him.
 
The ambulance had overturned and smashed. It was dragged a short distance, when the infuriated steed broke loose, tore a short distance further down the pass and fell dead.
 
When the boy recovered his senses, his eyes opened upon a very different scene. The sounds of strife²¹ had ceased, and the struggle was ended, for the reason that there were no men left to resist the victorious²² Apaches. It was night, and a company of something like fifty were encamped in a gorge²³ in the mountains. The attacking party, which, including those who had followed the escort into the pass, but were not in time to participate in the engagement, numbered several hundred, and had, after the contest was over, separated and vanished, leaving the chief, Mountain Wolf, with half a hundred of his best warriors²⁴ gathered about him. After securing the treasure in the ambulance, and taking three horses of the company, which had escaped harm during the massacre²⁵, the Apaches moved on in a westerly direction through the pass for half a mile, and turned to the left in a sort of ravine or gorge. Several hundred yards up this the gorge widened into a valley, wherein were a number of trees and a small stream of water. There they went into camp. An immense fire was kindled²⁶, and as it roared and crackled in the night, it threw out a glare that made it like midday for many feet away.
 
Ned Chadmund had been picked up, limp and apparently²⁷ lifeless, by the chief, Mountain Wolf, and carried to this spot with as much care and tenderness as if he were a pet child of his own. The boy still showed a certain stupor²⁸ upon reaching the camp, but after he had lain a short time upon a buffalo²⁹ robe he revived, and, with wondering eyes, looked around upon the strange and weird³⁰ scene. The Indians were passing to and fro, as if making preparations for some sort of festivity. There was little noise, but a great amount of activity. Close by the fire were a half dozen warriors, engaged in cooking several carcasses, and had the persons concerned been civilized³¹ instead of savage³², the scene would have suggested an old-fashioned barbecue.
 
When the lad arose to a sitting position upon the buffalo hide, he became sensible of a sharp, stinging sensation in the head, and a sore, bruised feeling along his side, both caused by the shock received at the overturning of the ambulance. His action was observed by a number of the Apaches, but none approached, nor did th............