CHAPTER VII.
THE WITCH DOCTOR.
"Well, it's a little tough, but all the same I like it," was Billie'sopinion of the venison, after it had been cooked, and they sat aroundmaking a meal of it.
"You couldn't expect anything less," Donald went on to say; "because allmeat is more juicy and tender from hanging several days, when theweather allows. Before we're done chewing on this maverick you'll agreethat I'm right, for it'll get better with age."
"That's a cinch!" agreed Adrian.
As it was pretty hot around the middle of the day, none of them werevery ambitious about making a fresh start, after they had finishedeating. In fact, they lay around in easy positions, and waited for thesun to get started toward the west, so that its rays might not be sodirect.
"Tell me some more about the Zunis, Donald," urged Billie, thinking thatit was a good time to put forward such a plea; for long ago had he notlearned that a wise fellow will wait to ask a favor of his father untilafter dinner, and not when he first comes home, tired and hungry?
"Oh! can't you just hold your horses a little longer, Billie?" observedthe other, with a good-natured smile. "Because, you know we'll drop inon the copper colored gents tomorrow, with any decent sort of luck; andthen you'll be able to see everything for youself."
"Yes, that's so, Donald," the fat boy went on in his wheedling,insinuating way; "but I've been told that whenever you expect to take ajourney into any foreign country the first thing to do is to get guidebooks, and read up all you can about the people, their strange habits,and so-forth. In that way you can understand them much quicker than ifyou didn't know beans about the lot. And so, the more I can hear aboutthese Hopi and Zuni Indians, who all belong to the family of cliffdwellers, and are so different from every other tribe that everinhabited North America, why, the quicker I'll understand what a lot ofqueer things they do stand for."
Adrian pretended to clap his hands as if in applause.
"Seems as if he's got you there, Donald," he went on to remark. "A heapof sound sense in what Billie says."
"Oh!" remarked the fat boy, with a shrug of his broad shoulders, "I dohave a bright thought once a year, you know. Of course it's only anaccident, and couldn't be helped; but strike up, Donald, and tell mesomething about that old medicine man who is the queerest of the wholebunch I take it, from what I've read, and heard about him."
Donald looked sharply at the speaker. He did not underestimate Billie,and knew that many times the fat boy had proven to be far from being thenumbskull he pretended he was.
"Well, whatever put that notion in your head," Donald observed, "it's astrue as anything going. Remember that I've only run across a batch ofthese cliff-dwellers once, when dad took me to see the wonderfulColorado Canyon, where heaps of their rock homes can be seen high up inthe walls of the biggest hole in all the world. So that what I knowabout these Zunis we're on the way to visit I've had only from the lipsof others, generally cowboys who like to stretch things, youunderstand."
"All right; we'll make allowances for the exaggerations of Bunch, SiKetcham, Corney, Skinny, Alkali or even the chink cook, Ah Chin Chin.Now start in, please, Donald."
"In the first place," began the other, thoughtfully, "the old chap whorattles the dry bones, and plays the part of medicine man to the Zunishas been known all over the country for many years as the sharpest ofhis kind. He's got a genuine Indian name, of course, which I couldn'tpronounce even if I remembered it; but they tell me it stands for WitchDoctor, and that's what we'll have to call him, I reckon."
"A rose by any other name would smell as sweet," muttered Billie.
"I'm not going to try and describe the old fakir, because I never coulddo him justice," Donald went on. "Having seen one like him I couldpicture the Witch Doctor, after both Si Ketcham at the ranch, and CorseTibbals at the mine had painted a word picture of him. Above all thingsyou've got to snap him off, if you want a jim-dandy card for yourexhibit, to stun the boys at home."
"Yes, sure I will, Donald. Ain't I carrying ten rolls of films in mypack right now, just for that same purpose?" Billie assured him.
"What I wanted to tell you most about, though, Billie, was somethingthat's sort of excited my curiosity more'n a little."
"Oh! that sounds kind of interesting to be sure, Donald; so please keepright on, and let's hear all about it," the other pleaded.
"It seems," began the prairie boy, "that this old fellow has surroundedhimself with a regular halo of the deepest mystery ever. All of hisstripe like to make out that they're in direct communication with theGreat Spirit or Manitou of the red man, you know; and this Witch Doctorhas got the rest of the bunch beat to a frazzle, as Teddy would say."
"How so?" asked Adrian, as the narrator paused, possibly on purpose tolet his strange words sink in, and arouse further curiosity on the partof his hearers.
"It's just this way, as near as I could make out," Donald presentlycontinued. "Every little while the old medicine man disappears from thesight of his people, and always after conducting a series ofcracker-jack ceremonies. They say he's gone into the mountain to talkwith Manitou; and from time to time queer sounds are heard that set theIndians almost wild--strains of sweet music come out of cracks in therocks, and then a strange voice like the rumbling of thunder follows.And at such times every Zuni will be sure to flatten himself, facedownward, on the ground, listening with all his might, but not daring tolook, for fear he might see too much, and be struck blind; becausethat's what the Witch Doctor has warned them might happen if they gottoo curious."
Billie was listening with open mouth, and eyes that were round withwonder.
"Oh, my country!" he said, slowly yet with apparent exultation; "thenthere's a real mystery for us to unravel, ain't there, Donald? What d'yesuppose makes that music; and who does the shouting now?"
"Ask me something easy," remarked the other, shaking his head as thoughhe did not attempt to solve the problem. "That old fellow has them alllocoed, is my opinion, and they believe whatever he tells them. Somepeople call it hypnotism; but I just reckon that they're a lot offanatics, and ready to sneeze when the medicine man takes snuff. Butthere's another part of the thing that was a heap more interesting to SiKetcham and Corse Tibbals."
"What was that?" asked Adrian.
"Why, it seems that on several occasions, when the old rascal has wantedsomething or other that the whites possessed, and it needed the readycash to buy it, he's gone into his sacred teepee and come out again witha handful of crude gold. Why, being a miner, and experienced in thoselines, Corse says that it looked like he'd just knocked a hunk off aledge that must have been virgin gold!"
"Tell me that, will you?" gasped Billie. "No wonder, then, so manypalefaces wander off this way to watch the Zunis carry on when the timecomes along for their rattlesnake dance, and all that fuss and feathers.Say, chances are that the old chap knows of the richest deposit ofprecious metal ever discovered. And when he disappears inside themountain to talk with the Great Spirit, why, that's the time he does hischipping of gold. Gee! now you've got me some excited, Donald."
"Well, you want to keep right cool, and not give the thing away," warnedthe one who was telling of these strange facts. "Whether the WitchDoctor has got a hidden treasure inside that mountain or not, it'scertain that up to now nobody has found a chance to spy on him. He's toosmart for that. And besides, these Zuni Indians have so many tricks uptheir sleeves, what with their hundreds of pet rattlesnakes and such,that white men don't care as a rule to make them angry. All sorts ofstories have been told about dens of the reptiles into which they castthose who make enemies of them. I reckon these are only yarns, becausethere's been little, or no trouble between the whites and the Hopis andZunis; but all the same there's something about the queer habits ofthese cliff-dwellers that makes miners, hungry for gold as they may be,keep their hands off. Nobody knows what a Zuni is carrying under hisfancy blanket; and it may just be a rattler as well as not."
Billie turned pale, and drew a long
breath. Of course he was instantlyreminded of his recent terrible experience with snakes; and this tookaway in some measure from the pleasure he was anticipating when hestarted exploring the quaint village of the Zuni Indians, with thehouses chiseled out of the solid rock in tiers, and each door reached bya narrow ledge that ascended at an angle of forty-five degrees.
"I'm only telling you these things," Donald went on to say, "becauseBillie has asked me to coach him about what we're likely to run across.And perhaps, it's just as well that all of us remember we haven't gotany business to poke our noses into the private affairs of these people.If we do it we must take the risk; and that's what men like CorseTibbals have always shrank back from up to now."
"I can understand that plain enough," remarked Adrian, soberly; "forwhen men get the prospecting fever well fixed on them, it's got to besomething mighty powerful that's going to keep them from trying tosqueeze a secret like this from a red, no matter whether he is a WitchDoctor or not. Yes, our motto must be, 'go slow.' And at the same timewe might keep our eyes and ears open, so that if anything out of theordinary run happens, when we're in that village, we'll be ready to takea look into the same."
Somehow Billie asked no more questions. Apparently what he had heardmust have given the fat boy food for thought. He had a pretty livelyimagination, and doubtless allowed this to have full swing now; so thathe was picturing all sorts of astonishing things coming to passpresently.
They were just thinking of getting the horses, engaged in nibbling suchgrass as could be found near by, when Billie chanced to look earnestlyfar up the side of the mountain which formed one wall of the valley inwhich the panther had been met, as well as the feeding deer.
He seemed to be instantly galvanized into action.
"Looky there, fellows!" they heard him call out, his voice tremblingwith sudden excitement; "up yonder where that last cedar grows. Don'tyou see a man and a pony as plain as day; and he's sure been watching uslie around down here. Why, what if it was one of them young Apache buckswe scared off the other night; and say, couldn't he just riddle us withlead, if he took a notion to shoot right now?"
Filled with this alarming idea Billie commenced to roll over and over;while the others stared up toward the spot indicated by their comrade.