in such a country as that, full of sudden changes from mountain and table-land to valleys and plains, pretty large bodies of men might have been quite near each other without knowing it. unless, indeed, they should send out sharp-eyed scouts to find out about their neighbors, as did the miners under captain skinner, and the lipans of to-la-go-to-de.
neither of these "main bodies" remained in camp an hour longer than was necessary, but even after they left their respective camps they moved onward with some caution, half expecting at any moment to see one of their scouts come riding back with important news.
the white men had heavy wagons to prevent them from moving rapidly, but their road toward the "western gap," and even through it, would be almost a straight line compared to the long, rugged, round-about pass over which murray and steve harrison had followed the trail of the apaches.
"motion" was decidedly the order of the day, even for the apaches. to be sure, there had been no known reason why they should bestir themselves so early in the morning; but their chief himself had given orders the night before, right after supper, that no more lodges should be set up, and that all things should be in condition for a march.
he needed yet to make up his mind precisely in what direction the march should be, and rita's "talking leaves" had not given him a single hint about that.
the fact that they had not was a trouble to him, but it was a little too much to expect of a chief and warrior that he should seem to go for counsel to a mere squaw, and a very young one—a squaw of the pale-faces at that. so rita and ni-ha-be had not been molested in their lodge all the evening, and a grand talk they had of it all by themselves, with mother dolores to listen.
dolores had listened, but the girls had been surprised by the fact that she asked almost no questions at all—not even about the cavalry pictures.
she did not explain to them that her mind was all the while too completely filled with the thought of the one picture which had spoken to her, and made her shut her eyes and kneel down. there could not possibly be any other which could do more than that, although it was a great thing that many bears should have given them any attention.
ni-ha-be had slept as soundly as usual that night, and rita had "made believe" do so, until her adopted sister ceased even to whisper to her, and she could hear the loud breathing of mother dolores on the opposite side of the lodge.
then she opened her eyes in the darkness, and tried to recall all she had seen in the three marvellous magazines, page by page.
how it all did come back to her! some of the words, too, that she had not understood begun to have a meaning to her.
"they are talking now," she said to herself. "they are almost all talking. they are helping me remember. i'm sure that was my mother—my white mother. but where is my white father? he was not there at all. i must look for him again tomorrow. we must ride off away from the camp, where nobody can see us, and we can talk as much as we please."
"we" meant herself and ni-ha-be, of course, but it also meant her three prizes. she had brought them to bed with her on her soft buffalo-skin, and she was hugging them closely now. it seemed to her as if they were alive, and had come to tell her almost anything she could think to ask.
then it was all so still, and she was so tired with her journey and her excitement, that she fell asleep at last, to dream of more people and stranger things than had ever come to her mind before, sleeping or waking.
when morning came there was no need for rita to propose a ride on horseback. ni-ha-be spoke of it first, and for the self-same reason; but there was nothing unusual about it, for they almost lived in the saddle, like genuine daughters of the great apache nation.
that, too, was why nobody paid them any attention when, an hour or so after their late breakfast, they were seen to scold a couple of wild-looking boys into bringing up their horses for them. the chief's two favorites were entitled to that much of service, and were apt to insist upon it.
for a while the very delight of galloping up and down the valley on such swift and beautiful animals as they were riding almost drove out of their minds the thought of talking leaves; but when, a little later, many bears slowly arose from a long fit of thinking, there in front of his lodge, and said to red wolf, "call rita," rita was nowhere to be seen.
"find her. tell her to come and bring me the white men's medicine, talking leaves."
red wolf sprang upon the nearest horse—and there were several standing ready for sudden errands—and dashed away in search of his truant sisters.
mother dolores could tell him nothing, but his loud, half-angry questionings drew together a knot of squaws and children, two or three of whom were ready to point toward the north-eastern slope of the valley, where it crept up through the pine-forest into the mountains, and tell him he would have to hunt in that direction.
he was ready for it, of course; but he reined in his mustang in front of his father long enough to tell him the cause of the delay.
"bring them back. they are as wild as rabbits. they will lose their scalps some day."
the chief did not smile when he said that. he was beginning to feel uneasy about the position of his affairs, and he could hardly have told why. he said to himself, "bad medicine. can't see him. great chief smell him."
and then he gave sharp orders to his young braves to have all the ponies caught and brought in from the pastures below, and to the squaws to have all their packs ready and their lodges taken down.
"big talk come," he said again to himself. "maybe big fight. don't know. must be ready. somebody catch the great chief asleep if he doesn't look out."
nobody had ever done that yet, for many bears had even a greater name for his cunning than for his fighting.
red wolf was well mounted, and he darted away at full speed. his father was not a man to forgive a slow messenger any more than a slow cook.
"i understand," he muttered. "squaws not stay in valley. go among trees and rocks. bears catch 'em some day. eat 'em all up. not afraid of anything."
so he was really anxious about them, and afraid they would run into danger?
certainly.
the red man's family affection does not always show itself in the same way with ours, but there is plenty of it. all the more in the case of a young brave like red wolf, with every reason to be proud as well as fond of his sister.
and of rita?
he was thinking of her now, and wondering if she had learned anything more about the cavalry from her talking leaves.
it was, for all the world, just as if he had been a young white man from "one of the first families." he galloped onward, keenly eying the fringes of the forest and the broken bases of the ledges, until he came to the broad opening below the gap, and here he suddenly stopped and sprung to the ground at a place where the green sod was soft and deeply marked with the prints of horses' hoofs.
"the blue-coat horsemen came out into the valley here. their tracks are old. ugh! those are fresh. ni-ha-be and rita."
he was on his horse again in an instant, galloping up the not very steep slope of the pass.
the two girls had been in no hurry, and it was not long before red wolf came in sight of them.
he put his hand to his mouth and gave a long, peculiar whoop that meant: "i am after you. come back!"
they understood it well enough, and rita might have obeyed at once if she had been left to herself; but there was more than a little mischief behind the black eyes of ni-ha-be.
"let him catch us. he won't do anything worse than scold. i'm not afraid of red wolf."
rita was, just a little, but she rode on beside her sister without turning her head.
"we shall not read any out of the leaves this morning."
"read? what is that?"
"just the same as a warrior when he finds the trail of a deer. just like the trail of the blue-coat cavalry. father and the gray-heads read it."
"is that the way the leaves talk to you? i guessed it was. it is all signs, like tracks in the mud."
rita had used the only apache word she could think of that came at all near to meaning what she wanted, but there was no word for "book," or for any kind of book.
again they heard the shout of red wolf behind them. it was nearer now, and a little angry.
"he is coming, ni-ha-be. don't let us ride fast."
"he is saying ugly things. but we will laugh at him, and tell him he cannot whoop loud enough to be heard."
red wolf was proud of his powerful voice, and that would be a sure way to tease him.
"rita! the great chief is angry! he calls for you!"
he was close upon them by this time, and they reined in their horses. teasing red wolf was one thing, but disobeying many bears was quite another.
they had seen squaws beaten for smaller offences than that.
"we have done wrong, ni-ha-be."
"oh, not much. we can ride back as fast as our ponies can carry us. turn and meet him."
it had been a very little bit of a "runaway" on the part of the two girls, but it threatened to have serious consequences.
there was no time even for red wolf to scold them before the consequences began to come.
they had ridden just to the end of the spot where the rocks and bushes at the roadside were so thick-set and made so perfect a cover for anybody hiding among them.
"look, red wolf! look!"
"oh, who are they? enemies!"
the young brave pulled in his mustang so sharply that he almost tumbled him over, and turned his head.
"pale-faces! how came they here?"
he could hardly have been more astonished if one of the granite bowlders near him had stood up and said, "good-morning." so far as he could have guessed, the nearest white man was many hundreds of miles away, and his nation was at peace with them for the time; but here were three of the hated race standing in the road to cut oft his retreat and that of his sisters.
three tall, brawny, evil-looking pale-faces, with rifles in their hands, and the foremost of them was levelling his gun straight at red wolf, and shouting, "surrender, you red-skinned coyote, or i'll put a pill into ye."
an indian brave, like the son of many bears, might deem it an honor to be named after the large, dangerous "wolf" he had killed in single fight with only his knife, but to be called a coyote, a miserable prairie wolf, jackal, was a bitter insult, and that was what it was meant for. he had left his carbine in the camp, but his long lance was in his hand, and his knife and revolver were in his belt.
what could one young brave do against three such powerful and well-armed white men?
"ni-ha-be!" exclaimed rita.
"i am an apache girl! i can fight! you are a pale-face!"
rita was stung to her very heart by her sister's scornful reply, for she had also brought her bow and arrows. they never stirred from camp without them, and squaws were not permitted to carry firearms.
ni-ha-be had an arrow already on the string, and rita followed her example like a flash.
"red wolf is a warrior. he is not a coyote. he will show the pale-faces—"
twang!
the sound of ni-ha-be's bow-string cut red wolf's haughty reply in two in the middle, and it was well for the miner "bill" that he was quick in dodging. as it was, he dropped his rifle, for there was an arrow through his right arm above the elbow, and ni-ha-be was fitting another.
twang!
but the man at whom rita aimed her arrow was an old indian fighter, and he parried it easily.
"red wolf, your pistol!"
"boys," exclaimed bill, "they're a lot of young wild-cats! we'll jest have to shoot. pick on the redskin, quick, and knock over the two girls before they make a hole into ye."
the two parties were hardly twenty yards apart, and all this had happened in a few seconds; but just then red wolf was exclaiming,
"two more!"
and rita said, excitedly,
"stop, ni-ha-be! see! they are fighting other. these two are friends. don't shoot!"
