“The Gift of Cochise” is a short story by Louis L’Amour, who’s known mainly for his many Western novels and short stories, although he occasionally wrote other genres as well. It’s about a woman and her two young children surviving alone in Apache country. Her husband went away for supplies and hasn’t returned. I think it’s one of the best known Western short stories or “frontier stories”, as L’Amour called them. It can be read in the Amazon sample of The Collected Short Stories of Louis L’Amour: Volume 1 (7% in). Here’s a summary of “The Gift of Cochise”.
“The Gift of Cochise” Summary
Angie Lowe stands in the door of her cabin with a shotgun. Her two young children, Jimmy and Jane, stand next to her. Out front are twelve Apaches on ponies, including their leader, Cochise. His men have attacked three times and been repelled. Seven are dead and three wounded. He wanted to see for himself the woman who had killed his men.
Cochise asks where her man is. He’s been in El Paso for four months. They both know he’s dead if he hasn’t returned yet. She’s not leaving her home, land and spring. The Apaches need water when they come this way; Angie agrees they can drink if they come in peace.
Cochise asks if Jimmy can shoot. She tells him to show them, and the seven-year-old steadies his rifle and shoots the bud off a prickly pear two hundred yards away. The men are impressed. Angie doesn’t want to fight. Cochise says they won’t bother her anymore. As they leave, she asks about her two stolen ponies, but he doesn’t answer.
In the morning, her ponies are back in the corral. She continues working on her property and twice finds a quarter of an antelope on her step.
Angie was seventeen when she married Ed Lowe. They moved south from Santa Fe to West Dog where Ed built the house on the site Angie chose. It’s sheltered by a cliff and can only be approached from two directions with clear sight lines. Ed worked on the property for seven months. Finally, he had to go to El Paso for supplies.
Ed had some drinks in the saloon and talked to the bartender. Suddenly, there was a ruckus as Ches Lane was confronted by three Tollivers because he had killed a fourth in self-defense on the Brazos. Knowing they were going to kill Lane, Ed sided with him. After the shooting stopped, the three Tollivers were dead and Ed was hit, living only long enough to worry about Angie.
Ches Lane gets Ed’s story from the bartender, but he’s not clear on where he lived, just that it was northeast in Apache country. Ed Lowe saved his life and Ches is determined to find his wife and kids and help them.
Ches travels the country for three months looking for Ed’s homestead. The Apaches become aware of him and he has several encounters with them, killing some and narrowly escaping. It’s unlikely that a woman alone would last out there but he keeps looking, despite the danger. He finds three burned ranch houses and, once, a dead couple in a wagon.
Among themselves, the Apaches talk about this lone man who’s always riding but seems to be going nowhere. They can tell he’s looking for something. Cochise returns to Angie’s place and asks her to join with his people, but she turns him down.
Angie continues working and the family gets by. She knows she can’t go anywhere on her own, away from the protection Cochise has granted.
On Sunday, the children play and Angie sits in the shade. She changes her dress and does her hair and knows she’s still young and pretty. As the family sits reading the Bible, Jimmy sees something.
“The Gift of Cochise” Summary, Cont’d
Meanwhile, Ches Lane has made camp in a narrow canyon where there’s water. He cooks a meal and he and his horse drink and sleep there. In the morning, the horse seems to be listening to something, but Ches can’t hear or see anything unusual. When he rides out of the canyon mouth, he’s captured by a group of Apaches, led by Cochise.
They bind him and they ride miles in the heat. One of the warriors strikes him. Finally, they stop at a huge hill of red ants. Ches insults his captors, saying he would kill any one of them in a fair fight. He demands a knife so he can fight the biggest man present. He calls on their sense of honor and respect for a fighting man.
Cochise has Ches Lane’s hands freed and throws him his knife. He hopes to be able to get to his horse. He and the big warrior face each other. The warrior is cut under the armpit and Ches is cut in return. Ches cuts him again on the back. They grab hold of each other’s knife wrists and struggle. Ches drops low and throws the Apache over him into the sand.
The Apache has lost his knife. Ches picks it up and throws it back to him. Weak now from blood loss, the warrior’s charge is parried and Ches presses his knife against his opponent’s stomach. Instead of finishing him, Ches pulls back and says it’s enough that he has won. He goes to his horse but the Apache’s rifles are trained on him.
They bind Ches again and ride until they reach camp. He’s given refreshments and they spend the night. In the morning they travel to a stone cabin.
Angie responds to Jimmy’s warning and sees Cochise and a war party approaching. They also have a prisoner—a big, unshaven white man with ragged, bloody clothes who badly needs a bath. Angie wouldn’t take an Apache man so he gives her this one. Not wanting to offend Cochise, Angie unties the man’s hands and the warriors ride off.
Angie feels awkward with this man being brought to her like this. She tells Ches he can clean up. He goes to the basin and uses Ed’s razor.
Angie uses Ed’s name and Ches knows she’s Angie Lowe. He tells her what happened in the saloon. She doesn’t want him to feel any obligation to her over Ed’s reckless decision.
The eat supper and Angie and the children feel awkward. Ches eats hungrily; he’s been living a long time on what he could prepare on the trails.
He prepares his bed in the barn and then sits on the step. Angie comes out and says Cochise will be heading to Mexico, but Ches wasn’t thinking about him. He says a man could get to like it here.
I hope this summary of “The Gift of Cochise” by Louis L’Amour was helpful.