s to him. All the
warriors listen. They did as he said to-night, and so they beat the
Lipans."

"He is not a warrior. He did not go out and fight."

"All warriors do not go always. Some stay in camp. Young squaws like
you and me must not talk about chiefs."

That was good Apache teaching, and Ni-ha-be knew it, but she seemed to
have formed a strong dislike for Send Warning, and she retorted,

"He is not a chief--only a pale-face. I will talk about him as much as
I please. You like him because he is one of your own people."

Rita was silent. There was a very strange feeling in her heart just
then, and she was trying to understand it.

For long years, ever since she was a little girl, she had been taught
to think of herself as an Apache maiden, the daughter of a great chief,
and she had grown to be very proud of it. She had been even ashamed,
at times, of the fact that, in some way that she did not quite
understand, she was a pale-face also. Ni-ha-be had been apt to throw
it at her whenever there was any dispute between them, and that had
helped to keep her from forgetting it.

And, now she had seen Send Warning and Knotted Cord, she had felt that
a sort of change was coming over her. She was young, but she could see
that in some way they were the superiors of all the red warriors around
them. They were listened to and looked up to, although they were
almost strangers. To her eyes they were better-looking, something
higher and nobler, and she was not at all ashamed of the thought that
they belonged to her own people. Then it had come to her, with a great
rush of joy in her heart, that she could speak her own language--a
little of it. She could even hear many words from the mysterious
talking leaves of the pale-faces, and no Apache girl could do that--not
even Ni-ha-be herself, for all her wonderfully good eyes.

Then there came to the camp the great excitement caused by finding out
the escape of the Lipan prisoners, and quickly after that had come the
departure of the force sent out to recapture them.

Rita and Ni-ha-be had been standing side by side, watching all that was
done.

"Send Warning is going on the war-path now, Ni-ha-be."

"So are Red Wolf and Knotted Cord. Young braves are worth more than
wrinkled old men."

"The great chief himself is wrinkled a little."

"He is a great brave. He must be angry by this time. He will send for
Dolores."

They did not know how earnestly that i