, while he asked Juan a question in the Navajo tongue,
and afterwards gave a command. He turned his eyes upon the Native Son
and spoke in Spanish. "The men you want did not come this way," he said
gravely. "Juan will tell."

"Yes, I know dat Ramon Chavez. I seen him dat day. I'm start for home,
an' I seen Ramon Chavez an' dat Luis Rojas an' one white feller I'm
don't know dat feller. They don't got red car. They got big, black car.
They come outa corral--scare my horse. They go 'cross railroad. I go
'cross rio. One red car pass me. I go along, bimeby I pass red car in
sand. Ramon Chavez, he don't go in dat car. I don't know them feller.
Ramon Chavez he go 'cross railroad in big black car."

"Then who was it we've been trailing out this way?" Luck asked the
question in Spanish and glanced from one brown face to the other.

The older Indian shifted his moccasined feet in the sand and looked
away. "Indians," he said in Mexican. "You follow, Indians think you
maybe take them away--put 'm in jail. All friends of them Indians pretty
mad. They come fight you. I hear, I come to find out what's fighting
about."

Luck gazed at him stupidly for a moment until the full meaning of the
statement seeped through the ache into his brain. He heaved a great
sigh of relief, looked at the Native Son and laughed.

"The joke's on us, I guess," he said. "Go, back and tell that to the
boys. I'll be along in a minute."

Juan, grinning broadly at what he considered a very good joke on the
nine white men who had traveled all this way for nothing, went back to
explain the mistake to his fellows on the ledge. The old Indian took it
upon himself to disperse the Navajos in the grove, and just as suddenly
as the trouble started it was stopped--and the Happy Family, if they had
been at all inclined to belittle the danger of their position, were
made to realize it when thirty or more Navajos came flocking in from all
quarters. Many of them could--and did--talk English understandably, and
most of them seemed inclined to appreciate the joke. All save those whom
Lite had "nipped and nicked" in the course of their flight from the rock
ridge to the Frying-Pan. These were inclined to be peevish over
their hurts and to nurse them in sullen silence while Luck, having a
rudimentary knowledge of medicine and surgery, gave them what firstaid
treatment was possible.

Applehead, having plenty of reasons for avoiding publicity, had gone
into retirement in the