rs in front of them lowered their lances, and the chief
himself responded grimly to their "How!" But he did not offer to shake
hands with them, and he did not check his braves in their rush through
the camp and all over it.

"Don't tell 'em too much, Bill. The Captain and the boys won't be gone
long. We can't warn 'em nuther."

That was just before old Two Knives gathered all the English he knew to
question his prisoners. He saw at a glance that the men before him
were only a part of a large party. The fires and the signs left of the
breakfast which had been eaten were quite enough for that, not to speak
of the size of the outfit.

"How many?" he asked.

Bill held up both hands, with the fingers spread, twice, and then one
hand.

"Ugh! How hurt arm?"

"Fight with Apaches."

"Ugh! Good. Where gone? All pale-face braves?"

"Hunt Apaches. Out there."

"Ugh? Hope find 'em. Kill half. Lipans kill rest. Kill pale-face
too. Put down gun. Prisoner this time. Shut mouth."

Bill had never in his life seen an uglier expression on the face of a
man than was worn by that of the Lipan chief at that moment.

There was no use in resistance. Silently the three miners permitted
themselves to be deprived of all their weapons; but the "stripping"
stopped there. A brave who reached out his hand for the battered hat
on the head of Bill was checked by To-la-go-to-de.

"Ugh! No want him. Let pale-face wear him. Take off scalp too,
by-and-by."

There was nothing very cheering in that, but Bill's head did feel a
little safer with the hat on.

"Tell ye what, boys," he afterward said to his mates, "when that
redskin's hand teched the brim of that hat it felt as if the hull top
o' my head was comin' loose."

It did not take those sixty Lipans long to find out all there was to be
found in that camp. Their first and keenest interest was in the horses
and mules, and the quality and number of these drew from them shouts of
approval. The mules alone were worth any number of mustang ponies in a
trade either with other Indians or with the border pale-faces.

Their first attempt at ransacking the wagons was sternly checked by old
Two Knives.

"Maybe pale-faces got fire-water. To-la-go-to-de not want braves drunk
now. Big fight maybe."

Every brave among them knew the good-sense of that, but they felt
better satisfied a little later. The chief himself superintended a
careful inspection of the wagons by two