ere was a very respectable Indian village.
Lodges, ponies, fires, dogs, everything belonging to an Apache
hunting-camp was there, and between them and any probable danger the
river was rolling now, and the Lipans did not know where to look for
the ford.

"Ni-ha-be," exclaimed Dolores, sharply, a little later, "go into lodge.
Too late for young squaw. What will the great chief say?"

"It is early yet."

"Go in. Lipans come and carry you off. Old pale-face see you, and say
foolish young squaw. Not know enough to keep dry. Fall off pony.
Ugh!"

That was a sharp hit, and Ni-ha-be obeyed Dolores rather than stay for
another reminder of her ducking, but Rita followed her very slowly.

"If I could see him again," she murmured, "I feel sure he would speak
to me. I don't care what they say. Dolores may scold as much as she
pleases. I will ask Send Warning about those words, and all about
those pictures."

She little guessed that at that very moment Murray was saying to Steve
Harrison,

"Yes, Steve, she's pure white, but she's Indianized. Talks Indian.
Thinks Indian. Don't know she's white."

CHAPTER XXII

To-la-go-do-de had all the pride of an Indian chief, but he had good
reasons for respecting Captain Skinner. He had seen him handle his men
in a fight, and he had talked with him afterward, and he knew that he
had not beaten the Captain in either case. Now, therefore, that they
were to go on a war-path together, he was not at all above a
consultation with so wise and brave a leader.

For his own part, he had decided upon the right policy to follow. He
had told his older warriors, "The pale-faces are cunning. The Lipans
must be wise. Suppose the Apaches kill many pale-faces. Ugh! Good.
Lipans kill rest of them very easy. Not so many to kill."

He was right about the Captain's "cunning," for it was a good deal like
his own "wisdom," and it had been expressed to his men in the same way.

"The Apaches are strong enough to beat them and us too, and they'll be
on the lookout. We mustn't throw ourselves away, boys. We must get
separated somehow. There won't be enough Lipans left to follow us far."

He and Two Knives, therefore, had about the same object in view when
they rode out together in advance of their combined force after supper.
The sun was setting, but it would be a good while yet before dark.

The miners were all mounted, and nobody would have guessed how much
extra weight they were car