Chapter 6

While everybody else was celebrating another resounding victory, Black Wolf was worrying over the consequences of letting the Mescalero Apache scout escape. He vowed that, from now on, he would always take the scout as his personal target; the scouts were just too dangerous to be allowed to escape. Black Wolf didn't know what to expect, exactly, but he knew that, whatever it was, it would be serious trouble!

Black Wolf would have really worried if he could have seen the conference among the Army commander, his staff, and the Mescalero scout. The consensus was that these new enemies had to be stopped, the question was what was the best way to do it. The scout insisted that the only way to beat the Wolf's Pack was with a determined pursuit, giving them no time to hunt, or even rest. Unfortunately, to do this they had to find Black Wolf's people, first. Even the scout had only a vague idea of where to look, so there was no immediate prospect for a quick revenge.

This was unacceptable to the impatient White men. They wanted vengeance, and they wanted it now! The scout warned them that they were setting themselves up for another defeat, but the Whites wouldn't listen. The Whites were convinced that all they needed to do was to lure the enemy into a fight, and the superior White technology would win. They simply would not listen to the counsel of the scout, deeming him as being too tied to the old ways of fighting.

Even though he knew that they were doomed to failure, the scout offered what advice he could to strengthen the overly complicated and elaborate trap the Whites were planning. The gist of the plan was that a small detachment of soldiers would be sent toward the mountains to act as the bait for the trap. Once the Apaches were drawn from the mountains, two other columns of troops would catch them in a pincer and crush them for good. The scout could see the virtues in this plan, but he pointed out that good communication would be required among the three columns for the plan to succeed. The scout was told not to worry, the heliograph would provide the necessary communication.

Still dubious of the plan, the scout agreed to lead the small column which was the bait for the trap. He knew that he was riding to his death, but he had taken the White man's money, so he felt obligated to do what he could to fulfill his side of the bargain. Whatever happened, he felt confident of a secure place among warriors in the afterlife, and that was all he could really expect from this life.

The Army was very careful to keep a strong presence whenever a patrol was sent out. They didn't want their enemies to be able to find a chink in their armor until they were ready to spring their trap. The Army commander wanted to build the frustrations of inactivity among the enemy; thus, making them more likely to do something foolish when the fight finally came.

This strategy worked! The Wolf's Pack was practically jumping with the equivalent of cabin fever by the end of the winter. Those 3 easy victories made the warriors impatient with Black Wolf's insistence that they not attack an obviously superior force. Oh, the warriors knew that Black Wolf's caution was the correct action, but the inactivity still galled. They could hardly wait for a chance to fight, again.

Black Wolf knew that he could not hold his men back much longer. They would abandon him if he didn't point them at an enemy pretty soon. Spring had already come before such an opportunity finally showed itself. A scout came rushing into camp one day with a report of a small column of troops headed in their general direction. The troop consisted of a scout, one officer, and 12 soldiers. They appeared to be guarding a wagon covered with a canvas hoop, so it was impossible to know what was in the wagon.

The warriors became very excited at the news. Here was the target they had been looking for. Three more warriors had joined the Wolf's Pack during the winter, so they now had 17 warriors available to attack the scout and 13 Whites, and they were sure of victory. Black Wolf could see that his men were going to fight, whether or not he sanctioned the attack, so he bowed to the inevitable. The Wolf's Pack prepared to attack in the same fashion that they had used previously: a deadly ambush.

The trail that the Army troop was following led along a small arroyo for a few hundred yards before swinging away to meander over the rolling plain. Black Wolf decided to use the arroyo as a backdrop for the ambush to prevent the soldiers from escaping by riding that way. There wasn't much cover on the other side of the trail, but there was a low ridge which could be used as a kind of breastworks by the Wolf's Pack. They hid their horses behind a low hill about 50 yards from the breastworks they planned to use and left two of the older boys to keep an eye on the horses and to warn the fighters if danger approached from that quarter.

The Apaches arrived at the ambush point soon enough to be in position before the Army arrived. It was along here that the Mescalero scout expected the attack to happen, so he was particularly watchful. The Army troop was rolling along as if they didn't have a care in the world, and this made Black Wolf suspicious, but he couldn't back out of the ambush, now, without the danger of losing his entire band of followers. The Apaches were strung out in a line along the low ridge, with Black Wolf at one end of the line and Snake at the other.

Once the Army troop was completely within comfortable firing range, Black Wolf gave the signal for the attack by firing the first shot. The first the scout knew of the attack was a bullet plowing into his chest! Immediately, the rest of the Indians began firing at the troopers, who were caught completely off guard. These troopers were all veterans of several skirmishes, so they did not panic, but they did dismount before returning fire.

The range was longer than the Indians were used to, so their fire was not as sweepingly effective as it had been on previous occasions when the range had been much shorter. Only 1 trooper was killed and 2 were wounded in that first fusillade, but nearly every horse died. The troopers used the fallen horses as impromptu breastworks as they dropped behind the horses and began returning fire.

Suddenly a new element entered the fight as the canvas cover was torn from the wagon, exposing a squad of soldiers armed with Spencer carbines. The soldiers on horseback had also had Spencers, so this represented a formidable array of firepower directed at the Indians. The soldiers in the wagon were a complete surprise to the Apaches and could have been decisive if the battle had gone on long enough. However, Black Wolf saw this as a trap and reacted immediately. He ran down the line calling to his men to retreat to the horses.

Some of the Apaches ignored Black Wolf as he called to them to retreat, but most followed his orders and turned to run to their horses. Just before Black Wolf reached Snake, one of the boys who had been holding their horses was seen running toward them, shouting that more soldiers were on the way. This was enough to convince the Apaches who were reluctant to abandon the ambush that Black Wolf knew what he was talking about, so they all ran as fast as they could to where the horses here hidden.

They had just made it to the horses and mounted when the first of the charging dragoons showed over a rise in the ground. Most of the Indians jumped on their horses and raced away, but one brave soul decided to try to stop the charge of the Army. He stood and shot at the charging soldiers as fast as he could lever his Spencer and fire. He was ridden down by the oncoming troopers, but he did delay them long enough for the rest to make their escape. If it had not been for him, surely, more of the Indians would have been killed.

Black Wolf made the snap decision to try to make something good come out of this fiasco, so he led his men to a place ideal for another ambush. The Army troopers were following blindly, too caught up in the chase to think things through. The Apaches did not weigh nearly as much as the soldiers, so they were gradually able to pull away. Once they had gained enough distance so that they were only seen occasionally, Black Wolf had his men slow down so that the soldiers would not get discouraged and would keep following.