"Humph!" grinned Dad. "If you think you can make an Indian talk when
he has been caught red-handed, then you try it."

Not a word would the Indian say. He even refused to look at his
questioners, but lay on the ground, stolidly indifferent.

"He's a prowling Navajo," explained Nance. "You may be sure this is
the fellow, Brown's 'spirit,' behind all our troubles. He's the chap
who stole Brown's rifle, who raided this camp, who set the lion free
and who poisoned my dogs---so they wouldn't give warning."

"But why should he want to turn the lion loose?" Tad wanted to know.

"Because the Navajo Indians hold the mountain lion as sacred. The
Navajo believes that his ancestors' spirits have taken refuge in the
bodies of the mountain lions."

"I believe there must be a strong strain of mountain lion in this
fellow, by the way he fought me," grimaced Tad.

"What shall we do with this redskin?" Chunky asked. "Shall we give
him a big thrashing, or make him run the gauntlet?"

"Neither, I guess," replied Jim Nance, who had cooled down. "The
wisest thing will be for us to take him straight to the Indian Agency.
Uncle Sam pays agents to take care of Indian problems."

It was late that afternoon when the boys and their poisoner arrived
at the Agency.

"I'll talk to him," said the agent, after he had ordered that the
Indian be taken to a room inside.

An hour later the agent came out.

"The Navajo confesses to all the things you charge against him,"
announced the government official. "I thought I could make him talk.
The redskin justifies himself by saying that your party made an effort
to kill Navajo ancestors at wholesale."

"Humph!" grunted Jim Nance.

"What happens to the Navajo?" Walter asked curiously.

"He'll be kept within bounds after this," replied the agent. "For a
starter he will be locked up for three months. Some other Navajos
were out, but we got them all back except this one. Going back into
the Canyon?"

Indeed they were. Late that afternoon the Pony Rider Boys began their
journey of one hundred miles to the lower end of the Canyon.

From that latter point they were to go on into still newer fields of
exploration, in search of new thrills, and were far more certain than
they realized at that time of experiencing other adventures that should
put all past happenings in the shade.

For the time being, however, we have gone as far as possible with the
lads. We shall next meet them in the