“With soldiers?”
Jimmie reflected an instant. If he said “With Joe Felmer,” then the chief would surely hold him as a great prize, for Joe Felmer, Government scout as well as post blacksmith, was an important enemy. So——
“Sometimes,” asserted Jimmie, which was true.
“Why on Keetchen rancho?”
“Tend to sheep.” And Jimmie blushed when he recalled that he had been a great sheep-herder!
“Pete Keetchen your father?”
“No!” repeated Jimmie. “No father, no mother.”
The head chief and the captain chief gazed at him as though they would read his very thoughts. The captain chief had such piercing dark eyes that they bored clear through. But he was a sure-enough Apache, with straight black hair and dark chocolate skin, darker even than ordinary.
’Twas to be imagined that neither of the chiefs believed Jimmie’s statements. They still suspected that he belonged to Pete Kitchen.