came mighty nigh it.

"Just as it begun to look as if it was goin' that way, one of their
chiefs walked forward, swingin' a dirty rag on the end of his ramrod as
a flag of truce. Kit looked at him very closely, and then exclaimed that
it was Quizto, a great rival of Valo-Velasquiz. They were always at
swords points, and whichever happened to have the strongest party at his
back when they met, outranked the other. The beauty of it all was that
Quizto was a friend all his life to Kit Carson--a regular redskin
friend, who was ready to scalp all his brothers and sisters if they
tried to harm him--and when he came to learn that Kit was treed, he
swore that he'd burn at the stake any Injun that laid a straw in his
way.

"This made a time, and, as I's tellin' you, the biggest kind of a fight.
At one time it only lacked a word to set it a-goin'; but Quizto's braves
stood by him, every one, and the others had to knock under.

"When Quizto come forward with his flag of truce, he called out to Kit
and told him that he was at liberty to go wherever he chose without
harm; but as Valo-Velasquiz would be so disappointed, he thought Carson
would turn over his friend, who wasn't of much account, that they might
have the pleasure of torturing him to death. That was lovely for me, and
you ought to have heard Kit laugh. He told Quizto that he couldn't do
that--both would go or stay together. That made another wrangle, but the
friendship of the chief to Carson saved the lives of us both. He
wouldn't consent that the guide should run the least risk, and they told
us to come down and clear out. We expected a big fight, for
Valo-Velasquiz had some ugly men with him, and he was a regular devil
himself; but when we got to the bottom, there was two mustangs awaitin',
and we straddled 'em, and warn't long in leavin' those parts. Old
Valo-Velasquiz and a dozen of his warriors tried to sneak along after
us, but we was as well mounted as they, and we rode into Santa Fe
without tradin' rifle shots with any of 'em. That was a strange thing,
but," added the scout, significantly, "I don't think you've got any
Quizto among them skunks down there."

CHAPTER XXXVIII.

HAND TO HAND.

The Apaches surrounding Hurricane Hill were more closely watched through
the forenoon, for Dick more than once gave it as his opinion that they
would make a rush before the day was over. To protect themselves as much
as possible, the rock of which the hunter had s