if to-la-go-to-de and his lipans had moved forward just a little earlier that morning, they might have been in time to witness the departure of captain skinner and his men on their ill-advised expedition. as it was, they were astonished enough by what they saw.
"pale-faces."
"big wagons."
"much horse. much mule."
"no tongue leave that behind him for lipans to take, and go on after apaches."
they believed they had solved one of their puzzles; but a good deal harder one was the question, "who are those pale-faces, and where do they come from?" no such party had ever been known or heard of in that vicinity, and to-la-go-to-de instantly came to the decision that this one should never be heard of again.
"not many," he said. "ride straight down valley and eat 'em up. plenty plunder. carry back big present for squaw to look at."
his eager warriors answered him with whoops and yells of approval, and he led them swiftly down all that was left of the pass and out into the valley.
it looked as if murray had been altogether right when he sent word to captain skinner by bill that there was "danger behind him." bill himself was thinking of it at that very moment, and saying to one of his mates, "i'd about as lief see the sheriff and his posse, all the way from denver."
"well, yes, i'd a good deal ruther be arrested than scalped any day."
"thar's a big swarm of 'em. no use for us to fight. i can't even lift my rifle."
"try a little friendship. maybe old skinner'll tell ye you've been showin' good-sense agin."
"may save our scalps, boys; but i don't reckon it'll save us much of anything else."
"they're comin' right down onto us. if skinner and all the boys were here, we could stop 'em, though."
if to-la-go-to-de's keen eyes had told him there were two dozen sharp-shooting white men in that camp, instead of three, he and his lipans would never have dreamed of charging in as they now did.
it was not a very ceremonious or friendly way of making a morning call. there was a good deal too much noise about it. too much clattering of lances and too many fierce, exulting war-whoops.
"our time's come, bill."
"it is if we anger them. keep a steady eye, boys. say 'how!'"
those three miners were men of great courage, and their nerves must have been in the best of order, for they steadily walked out to the border of the camp and met the lipans as if they had invited them to breakfast and were expecting them to come. there was just this difference, however, between their greeting of the lipans and murray's encounter with the apaches: bill and his two friends had sent no act of kindness and good-will ahead of them, while murray and steve were already firmly established, and well known as "friends of the apaches, ready to fight for friends."
it was a very wide difference, but the three miners had acted wisely. the lipan warriors in front of them lowered their lances, and the chief himself responded grimly to their "how!" but he did not offer to shake hands with them, and he did not check his braves in their rush through the camp and all over it.
"don't tell 'em too much, bill. the captain and the boys won't be gone long. we can't warn 'em nuther."
that was just before old two knives gathered all the english he knew to question his prisoners. he saw at a glance that the men before him were only a part of a large party. the fires and the signs left of the breakfast which had been eaten were quite enough for that, not to speak of the size of the outfit.
"how many?" he asked.
bill held up both hands, with the fingers spread, twice, and then one hand.
"ugh! how hurt arm?"
"fight with apaches."
"ugh! good. where gone? all pale-face braves?"
"hunt apaches. out there."
"ugh? hope find 'em. kill half. lipans kill rest. kill pale-face too. put down gun. prisoner this time. shut mouth."
bill had never in his life seen an uglier expression on the face of a man than was worn by that of the lipan chief at that moment.
there was no use in resistance. silently the three miners permitted themselves to be deprived of all their weapons; but the "stripping" stopped there. a brave who reached out his hand for the battered hat on the head of bill was checked by to-la-go-to-de.
"ugh! no want him. let pale-face wear him. take off scalp too, by-and-by."
there was nothing very cheering in that, but bill's head did feel a little safer with the hat on.
"tell ye what, boys," he afterward said to his mates, "when that redskin's hand teched the brim of that hat it felt as if the hull top o' my head was comin' loose."
it did not take those sixty lipans long to find out all there was to be found in that camp. their first and keenest interest was in the horses and mules, and the quality and number of these drew from them shouts of approval. the mules alone were worth any number of mustang ponies in a trade either with other indians or with the border pale-faces.
their first attempt at ransacking the wagons was sternly checked by old two knives.
"maybe pale-faces got fire-water. to-la-go-to-de not want braves drunk now. big fight maybe."
every brave among them knew the good-sense of that, but they felt better satisfied a little later. the chief himself superintended a careful inspection of the wagons by two of his oldest sub-chiefs.
"he won't find a drap of any kind of liquor," growled bill. "but i wish thar was some, and i could pisen it for him. they're a bad lot."
"thar's too many on 'em for the boys to handle, i'm afraid."
"captain skinner's jest the man to try it and find out. thar'll be a hot time, thar will!"
two knives probably had some such idea in his head, for his next orders, when carried out, left bill and his two mates firmly bound to separate trees, so that no braves need be compelled to waste their precious time as "guards" over them.
the camp was now no longer the camp of the miners, it was that of the lipans, and everything in it was their property, by all the laws of indian warfare. there was yet to be at some future time, of course, a fair division of the plunder, but the "transfer" had been fully made and it was too late for anybody else to interfere.
it takes a great deal of civilization to make a south-western indian, of any tribe, understand the white man's idea that his horse is still his own after it has been fairly stolen. to the indian's mind, the theft gives the thief even a better title than he could acquire by paying money, and the biggest brave of any band is almost sure to be its most successful and renowned horse-thief.
the lipans were specially well pleased over their morning's work, for they had won all that plunder without the loss of a single warrior.
the fate of the three prisoners was a matter to be thought over. to-la-go-to-de was by no means sure he had no farther use for them. he could wait till his braves should return from the examination he had ordered of the plain below the valley. it was less than an hour before they came back, and in a remarkable hurry, with the news of the approach of the main body of the pale-faces.
old two knives merely nodded his head. his captives had told him the truth. but that number of white men would not be likely to attack at once so strong a band as his own. a full company of regular cavalry would hardly have been enough to scare him, for the lipans are second to no other in their fighting qualities, and these were picked and chosen warriors.
"pale-face come. laugh at him."
captain skinner and his men saw nothing to laugh at when they rode near enough to understand the condition of affairs in their camp.
the blow had fallen upon them so suddenly that, for some moments after they halted on the plain, half a mile away, not a man could say a word.
"it's our fault, cap. we ort to have follered your advice."
"ort not to have left the camp."
"you was right."
"it's too late for that kind of talk, boys. the question for us is, what had we best do? anybody got anything to say?"
there was another moment of glum, sulky silence, and then a perfect storm of angry outcries.
"charge in on 'em!"
"kill every soul of 'em."
"fight right away."
"we won't lose all that's in them wagons."
"that'll do, boys. i know you've got all the grit for a fight," said captain skinner, "but suppose they're too much for us, and wipe us all out, what then?"
"then that's what it'll have to be, cap. we're ready."
"all right, boys. but no matter what comes, not a man of you must run. not for a yard."
"we'll stand by ye, cap."
"most likely thar ain't no use talkin' of bill and the boys."
"not much, i reckon. they had no kind of show."
there was no time to do any mourning for their comrades, but the way in which that line of white horsemen now rode forward made the lipans open their eyes in astonishment.
"keep about a rod apart," said the captain. "walk your horses. don't fire a shot unless you've got a good aim at something. we'll draw them nigh enough to teach 'em a thing or two."
for once even old two knives, with all his cunning, was led into making a mistake. he was unwise enough to try and scare those miners, when there was not a man among them who knew how to be afraid, and they had all agreed to be killed rather than not whip those lipans and get back what was in the wagons.
it was a bad mistake for those indians to make even a threat of a charge, when it brought them in a pretty compact mass, just as they were about to wheel, instead of "charging," less than two hundred yards from the steady line of pale-faces.
"now, boys, save every shot."
it was not a volley. the rifles cracked rapidly, one after another, but all were fired in a very few seconds and the lipans recoiled in dismay, firing wildly as they went, and carrying off their dead and wounded.
"keep it up, boys. steady. take a pony if you can't hit a redskin."
the "rally" of the lipans was quickly made, and their own firing grew hotter, but it had little of the cool accuracy that captain skinner insisted on from his own men. all the while, too, he was moving steadily forward, and to-la-go-to-de began to understand what kind of men he had to deal with.
a sharp, deep-throated order to three of his braves was rapidly obeyed, and in a few minutes more the miners heard their captain's voice, excitedly,
"halt! they've brought out the boys. they've stopped firing."
it was precisely so. there were bill and his two mates, on foot, with their arms tied behind them, and before each stood a lipan, with his lance levelled, ready to strike.
"that's plain, boys. they've got their lesson. don't want any more. want a talk. they'll kill those three if we don't hold up."
"we've only lost two, cap, and we've laid out more'n a dozen of them."
"save the boys!"
"no fault of their'n."
"have a talk, cap."
"we'll have to give up something if we do. they'll never give us back the outfit."
"you know what we want. we're close to the border now."
"all right. i'll ride out. i reckon their chief'll come to meet me."
the meaning of the lipans had been plain enough. the sudden firing of the miners upon their superior force had had all the effect of a surprise.
they were furiously angry over their losses, but their wise leader saw that he must give them a breathing-spell. no troops in the world could stand a fire so withering as that which came from the repeating-rifles of the desperadoes. quite as many ponies as men had gone down, and their morning's plunder had already cost them more than it was worth. therefore it must not be permitted to cost them any more, if they could help it by threats and talking.
