CHAPTER XXXI.--HOW IT FARED WITH SAM AND HIS FRIENDS.
When darkness came, the night of Ulna's arrival at Hurley's Gulch, itfound the camp excited about the existence of Tom Edwards'receipt--which it was claimed young Sam had--and, as a consequence theminers were divided as to the guilt or innocence of Mr. Willett and HankTims.
Three-fifths of the men believed that the prisoners were fairly tried,justly condemned and that they should have been hanged.
Indeed, these fellows felt that Collins, Si Brill and the men they hadbrought with them to prevent the execution were no better than a pack ofoutlaws.
All the men at Hurley's Gulch carried pistols, as a matter of course,but now they armed themselves with rifles, for the purpose of destroyingCollins and his friends, if they did not at once surrender theprisoners.
From comparative peace the camp was plunged into a state of war, withrival factions ready to slay each other, in order that they might takeor save the lives of Mr. Willett and Hank Tims.
Leaving Hurley's Gulch to its enraged rival factions, let us turn to thewest and see how it fared with Sam Willett and his friends.
In the wild excitement of battle, soldiers, who hitherto may havesecretly doubted their own courage, have been known to perform deeds ofthe most heroic valor, of which they retained not the slightest memorywhen the conflict was over.
This was Sam's case.
His manner of freeing Ulna was bold to the verge of madness; but theinstant he saw the young Ute vanishing at the head of the rift, heforgot all about the manner by which his release had been effected.
The anger of the chief, Blanco, was so great when he saw what Sam haddone that he would have slain that daring youth without doubt had he notfeared that in so doing he might lose his own life.
"What you do them for?" roared the chief, as he pointed after thefugitive.
"He was my friend," was all Sam could say, for by this time he had onlythe haziest conception of what he had actually done.
"He was the foe of my tribe."
"You did not know him."
"You do me bad," said the enraged chief. "You take Ute's place. Mypeople no stand what you do. I like be your friend. You friend of Ute's.No my friend."
The chief snapped the fingers of both hands and turned to talk with hisremaining braves.
"Mistah Sam! Mistah Sam!" whispered Ike.
"What is it, Ike?"
"W'at you tink now?"
"About what?"
"'Bout de sitooation?"
"I don't know," said Sam gloomily.
"Tink we's in a bad box?"
"If we are we must bear it."
"Jest so; but somehow I'd like a change to good luck, jest to see how itfeels like. 'Peers to me ez if we was nebber to hab no good times nomore," and Ike rolled his eyes and sighed at a great rate.
"W'at say me cookee blekfas'?" said Wah Shin, in whom the desire to beat work was stronger than his fear of the savages.
"I don't think they'll let you cook," said Sam.
"Den me tly. Dey say 'no,' den me stopee. Let 'em hab way."
Wah Shin opened the bundle, took out the few remaining rabbits, andgoing over to the fire, he deliberately raked the coals and began towarm the decidedly simple breakfast.
The Apaches offered no objections to the actions of the Chinaman, thoughthey watched him with the eager curiosity of children at a circus.
The Apaches make a bread from the pounded roots of the maguey ormountain aloe, of which they always carry a supply when on their warforays or hunting expeditions.
This bread is sweet and nutritious, and that it will keep for a longtime in its original state is shown by the fact that the recorder ofthese stirring incidents has still in his possession some of this bread,which he obtained in the mountains of Arizona fifteen years ago.
The odor of the rabbits on the coals reached the nostrils of the chief,and it must have soothed his anger somewhat, for he spoke to hiscompanions in the Apache tongue, and they at once pulled a lot of thisbread from their buckskin haversacks--it resembled plugs of very blacktobacco and tasted better than it looked--and they gave Sam, Ike and WahShin each a piece.
"This is all the food we have left," said Sam, addressing the chief andpointing to the rabbits, "but we shall be glad to share with you, and ifyou guide us to Hurley's Gulch I will pledge my word that you shall haveall I promised you before."
The chief replied to this with a grunt that showed he was still far fromfeeling good-natured, still he proved that he was not only very hungry,but also very selfish, by devouring one of the four rabbits withoutasking any outside assistance.
Ike witnessed this performance in open-eyed wonder, and he could notresist whispering to Sam:
"I've seed a good many hogs in my time, but that ar Injun as went an'eat a hull rabbit all by hissel', is jest 'bout de biggest one I ebbersot my two eyes on. Dar, he ain't lef' noffin' but de bones."
"When you no have more meat," said the chief, coming over and standingbefore Sam, while he cast a covetous look at Maj, "then I tell you whatyou do."
"What?" asked Sam.
"Don't you like the dog?"
"Oh, yes," said Sam, thinking that the Indian who could like dumbcreatures must have a kindly heart. "I am very fond of the dog."
"Then why you no eat him?" asked Blanco.
As Sam had never looked at Maj as something that might be eaten insteadof being fed, he was not a little puzzled what to reply, still hemanaged to say, with an attempt at smiling:
"That isn't the way I like the dog."
"No," said Ike in a low voice, "we likes dog wid de ha'r on an' de barkin him."
All unmindful of this discussion Maj went on eating the bones that hadbeen thrown to him and looking as if he had room for a great many morethan were in sight.
After this very informal meal was over the chief gave an order to hisown people and then told Sam that he and his friends must follow him.
"Where to?" asked Sam.
"We see, me don't know," was the surly reply.
As there was no food left, Sam rolled up the blankets and throwing theseand the saddle-bags containing the gold dust and the precious paper overhis shoulder, started up the ravine.
Ike and Wah Shin followed, the former clinging to his old shot-gun as ifhis life depended on it.
Eight lithe Indians, none of them burdened with clothes or the world'sgoods, brought up the rear.
On reaching the uplands the chief came to a halt, the others doing thesame, and shading his eyes from the sun, he looked long and eagerly tothe eastward.
With a thrill of joy Sam saw that neither Ulna nor his pursuers were insight, and well knowing the young Ute's powers as a runner, he had nowno fears of his being overtaken.
As if he understood what was passing in the white youth's mind, thechief said:
"You know Ulna long time?"
"Only a few months."
"You like him heap?"
"I do."
"You make him free?"
"I am glad I did," said Sam, boldly.
"Then you take his place like same as he was here," said Blanco, with anangry glint in his eyes.
"I do not understand."
"If Ulna stay we kill him."
"Yes," said Sam, feeling a cold chill and wondering what was comingnext.
"But Ulna get away."
"Yes."
"You help him."
"I did."
"Then you take Ulna's place. You all same like Ulna to us. We take youto Apaches, way off," and the chief waved his hands to the south wherethe purple peaks of the San Francisco range could be seen rising intothe bluest of blue skies.
"Would you kill a man because he loved his friend?" asked Sam with acalmness of manner that did not at all indicate his feelings.
"When man's friend my foe--yes."
"But Ulna would not do that."
"You think so."
"I am sure he would not."
"Ha! you don't know Ute."
"I know Ulna," persisted Sam.
"Ulna he like take my scalp."
"I am sure he would not hurt you unless it was to save his own life. Thewhites have taught him better."
"The whites!" repeated the chief, with a grunt of contempt. "Oh, yes,the whites, heap fine the whites. They take all Apaches' land, kill hiswife, kill him when he don't like it. Apache don't go to white man'sland; why, then, he comes here we no send for him?"
Sam saw that this was a mixed question to which the answer could not betruthfully given unless it agreed with the Indian's notion of right,still he said evasively:
"All men do wrong at times, but all men should try to do right."
"What is right? what is wrong? White man think one thing, Apache thinkanother thing; no one know. Sit down on stone; I wait till braves comeback with Ulna's scalp, then all leave."
Without waiting for any comment, Blanco again snapped the fingers ofboth hands above his head, and turned away to show he did not care todiscuss the subject further.
This conversation took place near the point of rocks in which Sam andhis friends had spent the previous night.
On some of the outlying stones Ike and Wah Shin were seated, eagerlywatching the chief, while their faces showed that they were takinganything but a hopeful view of the situation.
"Mistah Sam, w'at you t'ink 'bout dis time?" asked Ike as he placed ablanket for his young master to sit on.
"I hardly know what to think, Ike," was the reply.
"Don't you t'ink we made a mistake?"
"In what way, Ike?"
"By comin' up out ob dat canyon."
"Would you want to stay there forever?"
"Wa'al, not adzackly; but if I had any choosin 'bout it I'd a heap sightrudder be dar dan heah. I neber did hab no use for a Injun nohow. Jestonly tink, dey's been a-watchin' an' a-watchin' Maj, an' a-lickin' obdar lips as if dey was feelin' how he tasted. But if dey gits away widdat dog den dey'll hab to steal him whin dis yar chile's asleep," saidIke, and he reached out and pulled the dog nearer to him by means of arope he had fastened about his neck.
"Dogee, he no so belly bad fol to make eat. Way off Chinaland fat dogeeallee same's nice lilly tulkey. Big man he like him muchee heap."
"Wa'al," said Ike, with ludicrous contempt, "I tanks de Great Mastah Iain't a Injun or a Chinee. Dar's only two decent kind ob people; one'sblack, like me, de odder's w'ite like Mistah Sam. But," he added, with asigh, "I don't go foh to blame no one jest kase dey's so unfortnit asnot to be ob de right culah."
Sam could not keep his mind on the very funny discussion which followedbetween Ike and Wah Shin, as to the merits of their respective races. Hewas thinking of his beloved father, and wondering if he still lived andwas waiting for the paper that was to prove his innocence, by showing tothe world that he could have had no possible motive for desiring thedeath of Tom Edwards.
One, two, three hours passed and the fierce sun poured down a blisteringheat on the bare rocks, till the hot air rose in shivering, shimmeringwaves, that distorted every object seen at any distance, and threw intothe most fantastic shapes the hills that studded the wide plateau.
Every few minutes Sam looked to the east, expecting the return of thebraves who had gone in pursuit of Ulna, but it was not till the sun hadbeen past the zenith more than an hour, that his keen gaze detected fourfigures--the mirage gave them the appearance of giantspectres--approaching at a deliberate pace.
Blanco made the discovery about the same time, and at once sent amessenger to hurry up the pursuers. He did not need to be told that hisbraves had not been successful in their mission, for had they beenreturning with a scalp they would not have been so deliberate in theirmovements.
When the braves were within a few hundred yards, Blanco ran out to meetthem, and seeing that one of them was wounded he said:
"Did the Ute win?"
"He did," replied the wounded man. "An antelope could not have kept upwith him had he put forth all his speed."
"Yet, you came close enough to him to catch his bullet," said thepuzzled chief.
"Yes, and close enough to lose my scalp, if Ulna had cared to take it,"said the brave, with a candor but rarely manifested by a savage.
In answer to the chief's desire to learn how this unusual event cameabout, the brave told frankly and truthfully the whole story, even tothe conversation he had with Ulna before he left.
This story evidently had a powerful effect on Blanco, for he stroked hisforehead for some minutes, and then said:
"The Utes are changing; the Apaches must change too. I will not harm theyoung white man who told me the truth."
Turning, the chief strode quickly to the place where Sam was sitting andeagerly watching, and then extending his hand, he said with some feelingin his voice:
"You no tell lie. Ulna is good. Ulna escape. I am glad in my heart, forhe no take life one of my braves when he can."
Sam could hardly credit his ears, but there was no mistaking theexpression on the swarthy face, despite its half-covering of war paint,so he shook the chief's hand and said with a great sense of relief:
"I told you the truth about Ulna, I tell you the truth about myself. Nowguide me to Hurley's Gulch and I will pay you all I promised."
For reasons which he did not state, the chief said he could not go toHurley's Gulch, but he was willing to guide Sam part of the way there,and to take all the rifles and other weapons they had with them as partpayment, the other things promised to be sent out to a certain point twodays after the party reached the Gulch.
These were certainly anything but generous terms, but as Sam was in nohumor to press a close bargain, he agreed to them at once.
There was not much preparation to be made. All the canteens were filledwith water, and about the middle of the afternoon they began the marchfor Hurley's Gulch, which the chief said could be reached the nextafternoon, though he would leave them in the morning.
With a lighter heart than he had carried for many a day, Sam, with Ike,Wah Shin, and the dog following him in the order named, started off bythe side of the chief.
They moved so fast that by dark, when they went into camp in the bottomof a gulch where there was water, they had traveled at least twentymiles.