rds the boys.

"They aren't playing us a trick, are they, Frank?" asked Henry, in an
anxious tone.

"No," replied the elder boy, after snatching a glance to the rear.
"The lieutenant and soldiers are saddling. The Indians dare not harm
us on an open plain in sight of a mounted force."

The boys stopped, and the redmen came up and began shaking hands in a
most friendly manner, over and over again, repeating "How!" many
times. They were clad in loose and sleeveless cotton shirts, all
ragged and dirty, with no other clothing. The one who appeared to be
chief was distinguished by the possession of three shirts, worn one
above the other. Each man possessed several hares and field-rats, held
against his waist by tucking the heads under his belt.

The boy sergeants and their strange guests reached the camp-fire, and
the hand-shaking and exchange of amicable civilities went on for some
time. The chief approached me and, placing a finger on one of my
shoulder-straps, asked, in mongrel Spanish:

"Usted capitan?" (Are you the captain?)

I replied in the affirmative.

"Yo capitan, tambien; mucho grande heap capitan." (I'm a captain, too;
a very great heap captain.)

He then asked where we were from and where we were going, and informed
us that they were Yavapais on a hunting expedition. We exchanged hard
bread with them for a few cottontails, and set Clary to making a
rabbit-stew, the boys and I deferring our supper until it should be
ready.

"Oh, Mr. Duncan," shouted Henry from the direction of the Indians, a
few moments later, "come and see what these creatures are doing!"

I left the ambulance and joined the group of soldiers who stood in a
circle about an inner circle of seated Indians. Each Yavapai had
selected a rat from the collection in his belt, and had laid it on the
coals without dressing it or in any way disturbing its anatomy. He
rolled the rat over once or twice, and took it up and brushed and blew
off the singed hair. He placed it again on the coals for a moment,
and, taking it up, pinched off the charred fore legs close to the body
and the hind legs at the ham-joint. Replacing it on the fire, he
turned it over a few more times. Picking it up for the third time, he
held it daintily in the palm of his left hand, and with the fingers of
his right plucked off the flesh and put it in his mouth.

When we were making our beds ready for the night, Vic, whom we had
forgotten in the exciting events of the evenin