med,

"He shall not take you away from me. You are not a pale-face any more.
You are Apache!"

Rita could not help crying, for the idea of the change which was coming
to her was getting more and more difficult to deal with.

They were interrupted by the stately approach of old Many Bears.

"Young squaws foolish. Know nothing. Must laugh. Go to lodge now.
Three days go to fort."

Three days? Was it so near? The two friends were glad to go into the
lodge, as they were told, and cry it out together.

The nearest United States post at which there were likely to be any
traders was still a "two days' journey" to the northward, but Many
Bears had actually now received a message from his tribe that there
would be "heap presents" for those who should come in time to get them,
and he was more than ever anxious to discover if Send Warning had been
telling him the truth. His first proposition had been, as before, that
Murray should send for what he wanted, and have it brought to the
Apache camp, but that had been declared out of the question.

"Ugh! Good. Then Send Warning go with chief. Buy pony. Buy heap
other things. Come back and take young squaw to lodge."

"No. The great chief can bring young squaw with him. Send Warning
take then what he pay for. Give pony, take young squaw."

After some little argument this was agreed to, but there were almost as
serious objections made to Steve Harrison's joining the party who were
to visit the post.

"Tell them I'm going anyhow," said Steve to Red Wolf, "whether they
like it or not. You come too. I'll buy you a new rifle. Best there
is at the fort."

That settled the matter, but Steve did not imagine how much difficulty
he would have in getting hold of a rifle for an Indian. He was at
last, as it turned out, compelled to keep his word by giving Red Wolf
his own, and then buying another for himself from one of the traders.

But Dolores and Ni-ha-be were to be of the party. The first because
Many Bears would need to "eat great heap," and the second because she
had made up her mind to it very positively and would not give the
matter up.

"Rita," said Murray, in a low voice, the morning they rode out of the
village-camp, "take a good look back. That's the last you will ever
see of it."

Then for the first rime it came into the mind of Rita that she loved
not only Ni-ha-be, but all those wild, dark, savage people among whom
she had been living ever since