e is with the chiefs. Don't let them see we are
looking at them."

"I'm not looking at them."

"Neither am I. I don't care for Red Wolf either."

"And I don't care whether Knotted Cord sees me or not. I wish I could
talk with Send Warning."

"What for?"

"To ask about the talking leaves."

"Knotted Cord could tell you. He is a pale-face."

"He is a mere boy. Send Warning's head is very white."

"Look out, Rita. Your horse's feet are slipping."

Ni-ha-be had better have been attending to the feet of her own pretty
mustang. The ford was not very wide just there, and the two girls were
compelled to get a little out of the way of the two mules loaded with
lodge-poles.

Alas for the vanity of the chiefs self-confident daughter!

Her horse's fore-feet went over the ledge, and in an instant more she
was floundering in the river, while every squaw and young Indian who
could see her broke out into merry laughter.

It was well, perhaps, that she slipped from the ford on the up-stream
side, but it was clear that she did not need a bit of help from
anybody. No Apache girl of her age ever needed to be taught to swim.
It was quite a credit to her, indeed, in the eyes of Steve Harrison,
that she should so promptly catch her mustang by the head, turn it to
the ledge, find her own footing on the rock, and encourage the unlucky
quadruped to follow.

Then, although the water was at her shoulders, she managed, all
dripping as she was, to clamber into the saddle again. It was so
dreadfully provoking. She had heard Red Wolf laugh.

"Rita, did you look at them?"

"Look at whom? I was looking at you."

"Did they both laugh? Or was it only Red Wolf?"

"I don't know."

"Go on! Go on! Too Many Toes is saying something about me. She says
it is her ford, and I fell in because I did not know where it was.
Hurry on, Rita."

It was a sad blow to the pride of poor Ni-ha-be, but it need not have
been. Any girl in the world might have had just such an accident
befall her, but not a great many could have helped themselves out of it
so skilfully and so bravely. That was precisely what Steve Harrison
had been thinking, and he had not joined at all in the laughter of Red
Wolf.

It had been the chief's order that the lodges should be set up on the
safe side of the ford, and so there was work enough before the squaws.
Even some of the younger braves were called upon to lend a hand, and in
less than an hour's time th