e'd done fur 'em.

"Wal, they didn't. The fust thing we knowed, Geronimo and a dozen of his
devils was off their reservation and coming down through them parts like
a Kansas cyclone. It happened that me and the boys was several miles off
when we heerd the news, and knowing that Huber was alone at the ranch,
we rid like all mad fur the place. We got there too late to save him.
The ranch was on fire, and he was mangled so we hardly knowed him. But
he had died game, and killed two of the 'Paches afore he went under. The
three laid aside one another, and the two Injins was the very ones that
had set at his table, eat of his food, been given powder and ball, and
been treated like brothers."

"Are all red men as bad as that?"

"I've just said they wasn't. There's lots of 'em that would make an
ordinary white man ashamed of himself. But most of 'em are alike. What
I'm driving at is to knock out of your head any idee that this Motoza
that you let up on last night thinks any more of you for it. It's
t'other way. He despises you fur a coward, and if he ever gits the
chance he'll prove what I say is true."

This was depressing information for the youths, but they did not think
it seeming to express any doubts of the sentiments of one who was so
much better informed than they. They hoped that their own experience
would be of a different nature.

Having set out with the intention of reaching the ranch that evening,
the guide had made the necessary preparations. He rolled up enough
cooked pieces of veal to avert the need of starting another fire and
looking for more food. So it came about that when the boys began to
consult their watches and hint of it being near meal time, he drew rein
at another stream of water, where the ponies were allowed to rest and
graze while their masters refreshed themselves. The animals had been
pressed as much as was prudent; and Hazletine, looking at the sky and
their surroundings, said they were making better progress than he had
counted upon.

The weather remained all that could be desired, though he assured them
that a heavy rain-storm was impending, and would break within
twenty-four hours--an additional incentive for pushing forward.

They were hardly ever out of sight of cattle. Sometimes they were few in
numbers, and then they suggested the droves of buffaloes, which, before
the animals were extirpated, numbered hundreds of thousands. Once the
horsemen approached so close that the cattle w