with its
scattered jewels of yellow, and a strange light began to glow in his
sunken eyes.

"No, Steve, I'm too old for it now. Gold's nothing to me any more!
But that ledge is yours, now you've found it. Some day you may come
back for it."

"I will if I live, Murray."

"Well, if you ever do, I'll tell you one thing more."

"What's that?"

"Dig and wash in the sand and gravel of that canyon below for all the
loose gold that's been washed down there from this ledge since the
world was made. There must be bushels of it."

CHAPTER V

The lodge of tanned buffalo-skins in which Ni-ha-be and Rita were
sitting with Mother Dolores, was large and commodious. It was a round
tent, upheld by strong, slender poles, that came together at the top so
as to leave a small opening. On the outside the covering was painted
in bright colors with a great many rude figures of men and animals.
There was no furniture; but some buffalo and bear skins and some
blankets were spread upon the ground, and it was a very comfortable
lodge for any weather that was likely to come in that region.

In such a bright day as that all the light needed came through the open
door, for the "flap" was still thrown back.

The two girls, therefore, could see every change on the dark face of
the great chiefs Mexican squaw.

A good many changes came, for Dolores was very busily "remembering,"
and it was full five minutes before the thoughts brought to her by that
picture of the "Way-side Shrine" began to fade away, so that she was
again an Indian.

"Rita," whispered Ni-ha-be, "did it say anything to you?"

"Yes. A little. I saw something like it long ago. But I don't know
what it means."

"Rita! Ni-ha-be!"

"What is it, Dolores?"

"Go. You will be in my way. I must cook supper for the chief. He is
hungry. You must not go beyond the camp."

"What did the talking leaf say to you?" asked Ni-ha-be.

"Nothing. It is a great medicine leaf. I shall keep it. Perhaps it
will say more to Rita by-and-by. Go."

The Apaches, like other Indians, know very little about cookery. They
can roast meat and broil it, after a fashion, and they have several
ways of cooking fish. They know how to boil when they are rich enough
to have kettles, and they can make a miserable kind of corn-bread with
Indian corn, dried or parched and pounded fine.

The one strong point in the character of Dolores, so far as the good
opinion of old Many Bears we