Tonio, Son of the Sierras: A Story of the Apache War

Minor typographical errors have been corrected without note. Dialect spellings, contractions and discrepancies have been retained. Tonio, Son of the Sierras, erect and slender. Frontispiece TONIO SON OF THE SIERRAS A Story of the Apache War By GENERAL CHARLES KING AUTHOR OF "NORMAN HOLT," "THE IRON BRIGADE," "THE COLONEL'S DAUGHTER," "A DAUGHTER OF THE SIOUX," ETC. Illustrations by CHARLES J. POST G. W. DILLINGHAM COMPANY PUBLISHERS NEW YORK Copyright, 1906, by G. W. DILLINGHAM COMPANY Entered at Stationers' Hall, London All rights reserved Issued June, 1906. ILLUSTRATIONS PAGE Tonio, Son of the Sierras, erect and slender Frontispiece 8 Scrambling down the adjacent slope every man for himself 81 "Keep watch now all around, especially east and southeast" 175 "They've opened on Case and Clancy" 188 TONIO SON OF THE SIERRAS "Does it never rain here?" asked the Latest Arrival, with sudden shift of the matter under discussion. "How is that, Bentley?" said the officer addressed to the senior present, the surgeon. "You've been here longest." "Don't know, I'm sure," was the languid answer. "I've only been here three years. Try 'Tonio there. He was born hereabouts." So the eyes of the six men turned to the indicated authority, an Apache of uncertain age. He looked to be forty and might be nearer sixty. He stood five feet ten in his tiptoed moccasins, and weighed less than little Harris, who could not touch the beam at five feet five. Harris was the light weight of the —th Cavalry, in physique, at least, and by no means proud of the distinction. To offset the handicap of lack of stature and weight, and of almost cat-like elasticity of frame and movement, he saw fit to cultivate a deliberation and dignity of manner that in his cadet days had started the sobriquet of "Heavy," later altered to "Hefty"; and Hefty Harris he was to the very hour this story opens—a junior first lieutenant with four years' record of stirring service in the far West, in days when the telegraph had not yet strung the Arizona deserts, and the railway was undreamed of. He had only just returned to the post from a ten days' scout, 'Tonio, the Apache, being his chief trailer and chosen companion on this as on many a previous trip. The two made an odd combination, having little in common beyond that imperturbable self-poise and dignity. The two elsewhere had met…