et more Tontos. We fought them back and
I was wounded. They took me to McDowell, and no man was unkind until
the night they put me in the iron cell with Sanchez, and he told me I
should never see the Great Chief, my father; that I should hang for
shooting the white chief, Willett. When I slept he was there. When I
awakened he was gone, and the iron bars were gone. I went out into the
night--into the mountains--until I found my young chief. Then the truth
was told me. Then we followed, and found Sanchez. Then my people heard
the story and helped me find the way to the cave where the boys were
hidden. The Great Spirit of my fathers knows I have never broken my
promise. That is all that 'Tonio can say. I have spoken."

And then as he finished and the last word had been translated, all in
language far less vivid than his native tongue, all men seemed to
breathe a sigh of relief and seek instinctively to rise and gather
about him. The general slowly found his feet, rose to his full height,
stepped straightway forward to where the Indian stood, placed his left
hand on the gaunt and bony shoulder, and with his ungloved right seized
and grasped and held that of the elder chieftain, his own eyes
twinkling, moistening, as he spoke.

"'Tonio--Brother--the Great Father shall know, and if I live, all his
people shall know, how deeply you have suffered, how truly you have
stood our friend."

And then, still clasping the warrior's hand, Crook turned to his
officers, for by this time every man was on his feet, every eye was
again upon them, every face lighted with interest, and many with
emotion. Silently the general glanced about him, and at his signal
Archer came forward, his handsome old head bared, his fine eyes
filling. At his approach the commander drew back a step, releasing
'Tonio's hand. Then the soldier who but a fortnight back had sought to
prison, possibly to kill, this soldier of the desert and the mountain,
following his superior's lead, held forth his hand, a thinned and
trembling one, yet the clasp in which it took that sinewy brown one was
one an Indian could never doubt. Looking straight into 'Tonio's
fearless eyes, the veteran spoke: "'Tonio--Brother--I did you wrong. I
beg your pardon and I ask your friendship."

For a moment, silence, then for answer came but the single word:

"_Hermano._"

When presently hands unclasped and others began to gather about him, it
was seen as Stannard came forward he had linked