se and weapons of the Apache
warrior were his own personal property, and he examined them again and
again with a sense of ownership that he had never felt for anything
else. He could not tell why, until Jonas remarked to him,

"If you hadn't pulled straight, your plunder'd be in the 'Pache camp
'bout now, scalp and all. It was jest a question of grit and shootin'.
I'm powerful glad you made out to throw yer lead to the right spot."

So was Sile, but it was not easy, somehow, for him to make up his mind
that he had really killed anybody. He found a queer idea in his mind
several times that before long that Apache warrior would wake up and
wonder what had become of his horse and his weapons. Not long after
supper he curled up in his blanket at the foot of a tree, and in a few
minutes he was soundly asleep. He did not hear his father say to Yellow
Pine, as the two bent over him,

"My brave boy!"

Nor did he hear Pine grumble,

"If he hasn't earned a good snooze, then nobody has. Tell ye what,
jedge, that feller'll be guv'ner of a State one of these days. I'd vote
for him. I'd like to have seen him 'changing shots with that there
redskin."

They moved away, and the judge remarked,

"We are safe enough for to-night, but they'll find us to-morrow."

"Maybe, maybe not. I can't quite make it out as to what could bring 'em
away up here. Two Arrows told Sile they was a war-party, and if that's
so, they must have been licked somewhere. They'd never have cut it for
these ranges without somebody was after 'em."

"Perhaps so. We'll see. Anyhow, we can keep a sharp lookout."

There was no danger that any sentry would sleep on his post that night,
but all the first part and the middle of it went by as peacefully as if
the valley were uninhabited.

Sile slept and slept, and when at last he opened his eyes, he could not
have told why he did so. The stars were shining. The night air was crisp
and chilly, but he was warm under his blanket. It took him almost a
minute to gather his thoughts and understand where he really was. That
was partly because he had been sleeping heavily, and partly because, at
the very last, he had dreamed of being at home, and of leading a
remarkable horse into the sitting-room to show it to his mother.

It was a strange place to wake up in, and he could dimly see the forms
of other men, rolled in blankets, lying near, each with a rifle lying by
him ready for prompt use.

"They won't be taken by sur