ad begun with the beginning of the day, at Dragoon Pass.
What bloodshed had preceded it is not known. But Shea and his
companions were following a hot trail, eager for reprisals, cautious
against ambush. As they came on down the wash the leader scanned the
stony bed reading the freshening signs left by the fugitives; while
two who rode on either side of him watched every rock and shrub and
gully which might give cover to lurking enemies.

Now, as they clattered along the arroyo's bed, Shea suddenly drew
rein. Leaning far to one side and low, after the lithe fashion of the
cow-boy, he swept his hand earthward, picked up a little fragment of
dark rock, straightened his body in the saddle once more, and,
glancing sharply at the bit of ore, dropped it into his pocket. He
repeated the movement two or three times in the next hundred yards.

Chasing Apaches--or being chased by them--was almost as much a part of
life's routine in those days as sleeping without sheets. And no one
remembers how this particular affair ended. But Jim Shea kept those
bits of silver ore.

Later he showed them to an assayer somewhere up on the Gila and
learned their richness. Then he determined to go back and locate the
ledge from which the elements had carried them away. But that project
demanded a substantial grubstake, and other matters of moment were
taking his attention at the time. He postponed the expedition until it
was too late.

In Tucson they tell of a prospector by the name of Lewis who wandered
into those foot-hills during that year, found some high-grade float,
and traced it to a larger outcropping than the one down by the dry
wash. But he had hardly made the marvelous discovery when he caught
sight of a turbaned head above a rocky ridge about fifty yards away.
He abandoned his search to seek the nearest cover. By the time he had
gained the shelter a dozen Apaches were firing at him.

He made a good fight of it with his rifle, and the luck which had
caused him to look up before the savages had their sights trained on
him had put a wide space of open ground about his natural fort. No
Apache ever relished taking chances, and Lewis was able to hold the
band off until darkness came. Then he crept forth and wormed his way
through the gullies to the San Pedro Valley. Dawn found him miles from
the spot.

He came back to Tucson with his specimens. Marcus Katz and A. M.
Franklin, who were working for the wholesale firm of L. M. Jacobs &
C