he "Council." Only born
Lipans could take part in that, except by special invitation.

It happened, on the present occasion, that they were both glad of it,
for No Tongue had more than usual to say, and Yellow Head was very
anxious to listen to him.

"That peak yonder would be an awful climb, Steve."

"I should say it would."

"But if you and I were up there, I'll tell you what we could do; we
could look north and east into New Mexico, north and west into Arizona,
and south every way, into Mexico itself."

"Are we so near the border?"

"I think we are."

Something like a thunder-cloud seemed to be gathering on Murray's face,
and the deep furrows grew deeper, in great rigid lines and curves,
while his steel-blue eyes lighted up with a fire that made them
unpleasant to look upon.

"You lived in Mexico once?"

"Did I? Did I ever tell you that?"

"Not exactly. I only guessed it from things you've dropped."

"I'll tell you now, then. I did live in Mexico--down yonder in
Chihuahua."

"She-waw-waw?" said Steve, trying to follow the old man's rapid
pronunciation of the strange, musical name.

"Down there, more than a hundred miles south of the border. I thought
we were safe. The mine was a good one. The hacienda was the prettiest
place I could make of it. I thought I should never leave it. But the
Apaches came one day--"

He stopped a moment and seemed to be looking at the tops of the western
mountains.

"Did you have a fight with them?" asked Steve.

"Fight? No. I was on a hunt in the sierras that day. When I came
home it was all gone."

"The Apaches?"

"The mine was there, but the works were all burnt. So was the hacienda
and the huts of the peons and workmen. Everything that would burn."

"But the people!"

"Cattle, horses, all they could drive with them, they carried away. We
won't say anything about the people, Steve. My wife was among them.
She was a Spanish-Mexican lady. She owned the mine and the land. We
buried her before we set out after the Apaches. I've been following
them ever since."

"Were the rest all killed?"

"All. They did not even leave me my little girl. I hadn't anything
left to keep me there."

"So you joined the Lipans?"

"They're always at war with the Apaches. I'm pretty near to being an
Indian now."

"I won't be, then. I'll get away, somehow. I'm white, and I'm almost
a man."

"Steve, have you forgotten anything you knew the day they took y