Maurice Freeman was so overcome that he was forced to sit down until he could regain mastery of himself. Even Lieutenant Decker lost his facetiousness for the time, and stood with open mouth and staring eyes, unable at first to ask the questions that rapidly took form in his brain.
Mendez was a little foggy, as before, in describing the occurrences of the preceding night, but the officer suspected the truth, which, if fully told, would have humiliated the brave fellow. He forbore to question him on the point, for it was of little importance.
Cemuri was not present at this interview, but was only a short way off, awaiting the return of his companion. Telling his friends that the two would soon be with them, Mendez withdrew, and they were again left to themselves.
“It is the most wonderful thing I ever knew,” remarked Mr. Freeman, in an awed tone; “in all my calculations and surmises, I never deemed this among the possibilities.”
“It would have been still more remarkable had you done so,” replied the lieutenant; “it begins to look as if you will recover your little boy.”
“I hardly dare believe it,” said the parent, with a shiver of anxious hope, “and yet why not?”
“I think I understand the motif of those fellows in taking the extraordinary course they did. Maroz and Ceballos, I needn’t tell you, are among the worst Apaches that ever lived, and that is a tremendous statement. They saw that if they allowed the child to pass into the hands of the principal band, they must surrender control of him. In the complications likely to follow, it is not impossible that the others would agree to give him up, in order to save their own necks. That would be wise, but at the same time it would rob Maroz and Ceballos of their pet scheme of enjoyment.”
“It seems incredible that even an Apache should be so cruel.”
“There is nothing which human ingenuity can conceive that is too cruel for an Apache to do. This being so, they did not handicap themselves by keeping your child near them. They were liable to lose him, in the event of a sudden attack, before they could remove him, after the fashion that has been popular among the aborigines, ever since the Miss MacCrea episode, more than a hundred years ago.”