"Let's go over to that _mesa_," suggested Alice, pointing to a big,
elevated hill, standing boldly and abruptly upright in the midst of the
plain.

"No, I wouldn't go there," said Baldy, flicking his horse with the
reins. "That's a dangerous place, Miss. Best keep away."

CHAPTER XV

THE INDIAN RITES

Alice glanced curiously at the cowboy. There seemed to be a strange look
on his face.

"What do you mean?" she asked, adding in a half-bantering tone: "Is it
haunted?"

"Oh, Alice!" objected Ruth, shaking out her skirt so it would hang down
a little longer, for the girls rode side-saddle.

"No, Miss, it ain't exactly haunted," replied Baldy. "But it ain't a
safe place to go--least-ways, not all alone."

"But why?" persisted Alice.

"Because that's a sort of sacred place--at least some of the Indians
from the reservation think so--and, though it's off their land, and
really belongs to Mr. Norton, them redskins come over, once in a while,
to hold some of their heathen rites on it."

"Oh, how interesting!" the girl cried. "I wonder if we couldn't see
them? Do they do a snake dance, and things like that?"

"Well, yes, in a way," Baldy admitted. "But it ain't safe to go watch
'em. Them Indians are peculiar. They don't want strangers lookin' on,
and more than once they've made trouble when outsiders tried to climb up
there and watch. As I said, the Indians come from their reservation,
which is several miles away, to that place for their ceremonies. And
they come at odd times, so there's no tellin' when you might strike a
body of 'em up on top there, pow-wowin' to beat the band, and yellin'
fit to split your ears. So it's best to keep away."

"Are the Indians really dangerous?" asked Mr. DeVere.

"Well, I don't s'pose they'd actually _scalp_ you," replied Baldy,
slowly.

"Oh, how terrible!" exclaimed Ruth with a shiver.

"They ain't got no right to come off their reservation," went on the
cowboy; "but they do it all the same. You see this place is pretty well
out of the way, and by the time we could get troops here to drive 'em
back, they'd probably be gone of their own accord, anyhow. So we sort of
let 'em alone. They don't bother us, and we don't bother them. Just keep
away from that hill, that's all, for it's so high you can't see the top
of it unless you climb up, and there's no tellin' when the Indians come
and go."

"I should like to see some of those rites, just the same," declared
Alice.