om one of the first tentatives in saddle. Days
before this, had he been permitted, Harris would have been up and away,
he cared little whither. He wished to shake the dust of Almy from his
deerskins, get back to the mountains and the war-path, get over the
Mazatzal to McDowell and 'Tonio--'Tonio, his faithful friend and
fellow-scout, now languishing presumably behind prison bars, awaiting
the orders of the Chief of Chieftains in his case, for all pleadings
were vain. The last barrier to belief in his guilt had gone with the
recovery of the revolver and the exposure of the cock-and-bull story,
said Archer, by which he had humbugged Freeman and Blake into believing
he had really been slashed in hand-to-hand fight with Tonto Apaches.
The first name spoken by Willett, after the fever had left him, and
speedily he began to recover sense, was that of 'Tonio--'Tonio who had
shot him.

It had affected Harris to the point, almost, of relapse. He still
fought vehemently against the story, declaring 'Tonio too high-minded,
in spite of Indian blood and tradition, for a dirty bit of
assassination. The brutal and bungling way in which the thing was done,
said he, was enough to prove that 'Tonio had no hand in it. Thus could
he talk to Bentley, at least, and even to Bucketts, who would listen,
though he would not lie, and say he thought Harris right.

None the less there had been amaze at McDowell when Archer's demand was
received. 'Tonio had been taken to hospital on his arrival, kindly,
skilfully cared for by the young post surgeon, while the couriers had
been sent on to Prescott. 'Tonio's wound was a knife slash in the left
arm, and another in the side. He had lost much blood and had little
left to build up with. He was too weak to attempt escape, wrote Major
Brown, the post commander, even if he knew he was under arrest, which
he did not. "If I have to confine him it shall not be with such cattle
as that half cad, half coyote, Sanchez," and Harris, being very
improperly told of this missive, could almost have walked the weary
miles to McDowell to fall upon the major's neck and bless him. "The
very fact that 'Tonio was cut and slashed conflicts with every theory
in the case," said he. "Who would have cut and slashed him but Willett,
if 'Tonio attacked him, and Willett had no knife."

And still Camp Almy clung to the belief that 'Tonio was Harold
Willett's assailant and would-be murderer. Even Bonner, a conservative,
had this to