“Hyar! You lie quiet,” ordered Joe. “You got a busted leg, I reckon, an’ you don’t want to see inside that cave, anyhow. Wish I hadn’t, myself.”
“Are they all dead, Joe?” quavered Jimmie, helplessly. Wow, how that leg hurt! But it had been bound up, after a fashion, probably by Joe.
“Ev’ry buck, includin’ the medicine man. Plumb shot through, or smashed; lots of ’em both. Some squaws an’ kids left,” grunted Joe. “It’s what you might call a massacree. Now, you stay hyar, till we’re ready to move ye. I’m needed yonder. Micky can nuss ye; both o’ ye ought to be back with the pack-train—’tain’t no place for boys—’speshully for one who can’t dodge rocks.”
Muttering, Joe (who really was kind-hearted) trudged away.
“Ah, I told you it would be a great fight, Boy-who-sleeps,” grinned Micky Free, as he squatted. “Black Beard is angry, because you are the only one of us wounded; but you will be a warrior, now.”
“Were you in the cave, Red-head?” asked Jimmie, also in Apache.
“Yes. It is very red. All the Yavapai warriors are dead. The medicine chief is dead, under a rock. One old man was partly alive, and he died soon. Some squaws and children hid behind large flat rocks, and under dead people. They will be captives. You will see them. Delt-che is not there; but he has lost his best warriors, and he never will make a good fight again. I am glad we came, Cheemie.”
“What are the Pimas doing, Red-head?” asked Jimmie. For the Pimas, with Chief Owl Ears in the center, were sitting in a bunch and wailing.
“Oh, those Pimas!” scoffed Micky. “They make medicine. They no good any more. They find their Pima who was killed, and now their medicine tells them they must not fight again till after they have mourned him by singing and bathing and not eating. That will take several days. But Apaches wait till they get home. I do not think much of the foolish Pimas. And the Maricopas are the same. All no good—stop fighting and make medicine. Huh!”
The soldiers and scouts worked fast, cleaning out the cave. The squaws and children were placed under guard, the White Mountains and Pimas were given whatever stuff—mescal, dried meat, skins, bows, arrows, lances, guns, and so forth—that they could carry; the remaining supplies (a great quantity) were piled up and set on fire.