of their puzzles; but a good deal
harder one was the question, "Who are those pale-faces, and where do
they come from?" No such party had ever been known or heard of in that
vicinity, and To-la-go-to-de instantly came to the decision that this
one should never be heard of again.

"Not many," he said. "Ride straight down valley and eat 'em up.
Plenty plunder. Carry back big present for squaw to look at."

His eager warriors answered him with whoops and yells of approval, and
he led them swiftly down all that was left of the pass and out into the
valley.

It looked as if Murray had been altogether right when he sent word to
Captain Skinner by Bill that there was "danger behind him." Bill
himself was thinking of it at that very moment, and saying to one of
his mates, "I'd about as lief see the sheriff and his posse, all the
way from Denver."

"Well, yes, I'd a good deal ruther be arrested than scalped any day."

"Thar's a big swarm of 'em. No use for us to fight. I can't even lift
my rifle."

"Try a little friendship. Maybe old Skinner'll tell ye you've been
showin' good-sense agin."

"May save our scalps, boys; but I don't reckon it'll save us much of
anything else."

"They're comin' right down onto us. If Skinner and all the boys were
here, we could stop 'em, though."

If To-la-go-to-de's keen eyes had told him there were two dozen
sharp-shooting white men in that camp, instead of three, he and his
Lipans would never have dreamed of charging in as they now did.

It was not a very ceremonious or friendly way of making a morning call.
There was a good deal too much noise about it. Too much clattering of
lances and too many fierce, exulting war-whoops.

"Our time's come, Bill."

"It is if we anger them. Keep a steady eye, boys. Say 'How!'"

Those three miners were men of great courage, and their nerves must
have been in the best of order, for they steadily walked out to the
border of the camp and met the Lipans as if they had invited them to
breakfast and were expecting them to come. There was just this
difference, however, between their greeting of the Lipans and Murray's
encounter with the Apaches: Bill and his two friends had sent no act of
kindness and good-will ahead of them, while Murray and Steve were
already firmly established, and well known as "friends of the Apaches,
ready to fight for friends."

It was a very wide difference, but the three miners had acted wisely.
The Lipan warrio