ft, and he, poor fellow, was lying upon
his steed, both badly wounded, as they strove with the madness of
desperation to escape. But it was useless. The Apaches were all around
them, pouring in their shots with such precision that a moment later the
dying horse sank heavily to the ground and the wretches that dashed
forward to slay his rider found that he was already dead.

Corporal Hugg saw all this as a huge warrior dashed forward and seized
the rein of his own horse; but the next instant he dropped to the earth,
was trampled upon by the iron hoofs and run over in a twinkling. Still
the Indians swarmed in around and ahead of the team, against which all
the avenues of escape seemed hopelessly closed.

CHAPTER IX.

AMONG THE APACHES.

Having run down one Apache warrior, Corporal Hugg, unmindful of his own
personal danger, leaned forward out of the ambulance and shouted and
lashed the furious horse, which was already on a dead run.

"Go it, good fellow," he yelled, his voice rising above the horrid din
of cracking fire arms and whooping 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 crouched back in the swaying vehicle, was horrified to see his
friend pitch forward upon the foreboard, and then, as the carriage gave
one unusually violent plunge, 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 frantic, and abated not a jot
of his tremendous speed, though the reins fell slack and dangled 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 imminent danger from
more than one form of death. He was cowering in the bottom of the
ambulance, too much terrified to speak or to attempt to help himself in
any way. Bruised and stunned by the terrific bounds of the vehicle, he
was dazed, bewildered and only dimly conscious of the awful pandemonium
reigning 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
forsook him.

The