y. Not fight. Keep pony. Keep hair. Good. Ugh!"

The party which had been sent back after the lodges and things was a
serious anxiety, and a light-footed youngster was started off at once to
warn them. He would be sure to meet them on their way, returning, and
could tell them to be on their guard, and very little more could be done
for them.

Long Bear finished his speech of explanation, and then, without a
moment's pause, he gave the order to break up camp and prepare to march,
carrying with them every pound of provisions. Not one moment was to be
lost in gaining such protection as might be had from the good position
of the miners, and from the fact that they were pale-faces of some
importance, and from the other great fact that they were all good
riflemen. There was hardly anybody in the band, old enough to understand
what an Apache was, who did not fully appreciate the force of the
chief's argument, and every squaw did her best to hasten the departure.
Lodges came down, ponies were packed, children were gathered, warriors
and braves and boys completed their preparations for fighting; the Big
Tongue declared his readiness to kill a large number of Apaches, and
One-eye was compelled to abandon forever all the bones he had buried
since the people he barked for had settled upon the bank of that river.

There was a good deal of quiet and sober efficiency in spite of the
excitement. Two Arrows had further questions to answer from quite a
number of his elders. He was furnished with one of the best ponies in
the drove in acknowledgment of his services. He was now, also, to figure
as a kind of guide, and he did not once think of or mention the fatigue
of his long, hard ride. He very willingly ate, however, the whole of a
buffalo steak, broiled for him by one of the squaws, and felt a good
deal better afterwards. He almost felt that he had earned a rifle, or at
least a pistol, but well knew that it was all in vain to ask for one,
when the supply was insufficient to arm all the braves who were a full
head taller than himself.

Still, it was a magnificent thing, at last, to ride out at the head of
the cavalcade, by the side of a tall warrior, as the one boy of all that
band who was on first-rate terms with the pale-faces and knew perfectly
the trail leading to them. As for that, any red man of them all could
have followed the tracks of the wagon-wheels, even at night, but Two
Arrows had no idea of surrendering that part of hi