lmost a hopeless case, and the Apaches would be upon
them in the morning, but they waited.

Everything seemed to be growing darker, and the outlying Lipan
sentinels were not in any fault that four men on horseback should get
so near them undiscovered. It was very near, and the new-comers must
have known there was danger in it, for one of them suddenly put his
hand to his mouth and uttered a fierce, half-triumphant war-whoop. It
was the well-known battle-cry of To-la-go-to-de himself, and it was
answered by a storm of exulting shouts from the warriors among the
rocks. Their chief had escaped!

That was true, and it was a grand thing, but he had brought back with
him only three men of his "front rank."

The Apaches could hear the whooping, and the foremost of them deemed it
wise to fall back a little. Whatever their enemies might be up to,
they were men to be watched with prudence as well as courage.

The words of the great chief were few. There was no farther account to
be made of Captain Skinner and his miners, he told them. They were
cunning, and they had taken care of themselves. It had been well to
plunder their camp. He himself owed his safety to their old friend No
Tongue, and the Lipans must never forget him. The Yellow Head had
probably been killed, and they would not see him again. They must now
gather all their horses and other plunder, and push their retreat as
far as possible before morning. Some other time they would come and
strike the Apaches, but it was "bad medicine" for them just now.

Whatever else that may have meant, according to Indian superstition,
every warrior could understand that their losses had weakened them too
much to think of fighting another hard battle. It was no disgrace to
make a great deal of haste under such circumstances; and so, if Red
Wolf and the rest had been near enough at that hour, they would have
seen Two Knives and what was left of his band riding steadily on,
deeper and deeper, among the mountains.

CHAPTER XXVI

All the while that Murray had been sitting among the Apache chiefs and
answering their questions, and even when he and Steve mounted the
mustangs Red Wolf brought them, there had been three pairs of very keen
eyes, not to speak of any others, closely watching him.

"He is not an Apache!" exclaimed Ni-ha-be to Rita. "Why do they make a
chief of him? He is nothing but an old pale-face!"

"He is wise. He is good. The great chief listen