Page:A La California.djvu/144

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116
SANTA CRUZ AND ITS SURROUNDINGS.

Castilian descent. He was not strong, and quite timid and nervous ordinarily, but, in presence of actual danger, would suddenly develop genuine pluck and courage such as constitutes the hero in life. After we reached the Gila, we camped near the Pima villages, with the intention of remaining there some ten days or two weeks, to thoroughly recruit our animals. One day I had been out with my shot-gun after quail and rabbits, leaving Manuel and Butcher in charge of the camp, and, returning just before nightfall, heard, while still some distance away, a noisy altercation going on. As I afterward learned, Waco Bill, who had been off all day, had returned late, half drunk, and in a quarrelsome mood. On coming into camp, he had ordered Manuel to go to the river for a pail of water; and the boy, who would have brought it instantly had I but intimated a wish for him to do so, instead of complying with the command, resented it, and kept on with the sewing upon my clothing at which he was busy, showing only by the flashing of his large, lustrous, dark eyes, and the quivering of his red lips over his snow-white teeth, that he had heard what was said to him. Bill, infuriated at this, ran toward the boy to seize and punish him, when the latter sprang to his feet, and, catching the coffee-pot from the coals, where it stood simmering, threw it full at him, a portion of the scalding contents striking him on the arms, the breast and neck, and causing him fairly to howl with rage and pain. As I came in sight, the boy stood a few yards from the fire with the butcher-knife, which we used for cutting bacon, in his hand,