Ca. January 15, 1858; Van Horn, Texas: Stage company employees at the isolated stations dotting the overland trails had one of the most dangerous jobs in the West. During the winter of 1858, Light S. Townsend was station chief at Van Horn's Well, The twenty-three-year-old Townsend was normally a driver for George H. Giddings's company, but he had injured his arm a few weeks earlier and was given station duty until he recovered. Three other employees, all Mexicans, worked in the station with him. One of them, Jose Lopez, was an experienced Indian fighter. Another was an unnamed man from Chihuahua who was half Indian, and there was something about him that Townsend mistrusted.
That evening, Townsend secured the hayricks, which contained seventy-five tons of feed, then he shut the mules in their stalls and locked the big gate at the corral entrance. The eastern stage was overdue. Townsend suspected Indian trouble, but all he could do was keep his men alert and prepare the weapons. The men stacked rifles and ammunition near the loopholes of the two-hut station, then they played cards and waited for the stage. At midnight, the stage still missing, Townsend had his assistants douse the lanterns and prepare for bed. He had just gotten his boots off when, in the darkness, he noticed yellow light coming through the loopholes and heard a crackling noise. The hay was on fire. He shouted to Lopez to go out and drive the stock to safety. But when Lopez swung open the door, several arrows whistled past him. "Los Indiosl" yelled Lopez, slamming the door.
The four men each took a loophole and watched for one of the assailants to show himself in the darkness. Muzzle flashes lit up the night as balls slammed into the station like hail along with the flying arrows. Townsend tried to ignore the screams of the mules as flames spread from the hay to the roof of the stables. Smoke and the awful smell of burning animals filled the room.
The Indians, Mescalero Apaches, swarmed around the station. As a warrior tried to shoot through a rifle port, Townsend thrust the muzzle of his Sharps through the hole into the Indian's side and pulled the trigger. Then the station keepers heard warriors on the roof, trying to dig through the mud-and-wattle ceiling. Lopez stood beneath them with shotgun ready, A warrior poked through with a large stick, and when he put his eye to the hole, Lopez let him have a blast of buckshot, blowing him off the roof.
