ved _Capitan_, and it
was to him he spoke. It was he who translated:

"No one," said 'Tonio, "should venture beyond sentry post either day or
night. Even now the rocks and woods about the station were full of
foemen. Get ready to fight them and to take care of the women and
children. They mean revenge! They mean attack! Renegade Apaches!" said
he, "all renegade! Apache-Mohave, no!"

CHAPTER IX.

The night was still young. The conference at the surgeon's house was
brief, for Bentley, fearing for his patient, hustled all but 'Tonio out
into the open air just as soon as the Indian signalled "I have spoken,"
which meant he would tell no more. Brief as it was, the interview had
sent the wounded officer's pulse uphill by twenty beats, and Bentley
knew what that meant. Still it had to be. 'Tonio brought tidings of
ominous import, and the public safety demanded that his warning should
be made known, and who was there to translate but Harris? "If it were
only Chinook, now," said Willett, "I could have tackled it, but, except
a few signs, Apache is beyond me."

So while the doctor was giving sedatives to his patient, and the
doctor's servant giving food to 'Tonio, Archer gathered his few
remaining officers about him in the moonlight and discussed the
situation. From 'Tonio's description, the affray that had aroused the
Apaches far and wide had occurred three days earlier, just at dawn,
among the rocky fastnesses of the Mogollon, perhaps "two sleeps" to the
north-east, the very direction in which Stannard was scouting. But it
wasn't Stannard's command. 'Tonio said the soldiers were from up the
Verde, and the scouts were Hualpais, and then Archer understood.
Between the Hualpais, finest and northernmost of the Arizona tribesmen,
and the Tonto Apache there had long been feud. It was evident from
'Tonio's description that a _rancheria_ of the latter had been
surprised--"jumped" in the vernacular--just about dawn; that the
Hualpais, rushing in, rejoicing in abundant breechloaders and
cartridges, had shot right and left, scattering the fugitives and
slaying the stay-behinds, who, crippled by wounds or cumbered by squaws
and pappooses, could not get away. The soldiers, though only a hundred
yards or so behind, were slow climbers as compared with the scouts, and
though the few officers and men did what they could to stop the
wretched killing, a few women and children were found among the dead,
and the word was going the leng