Some of the boys were playing at what appeared to be hide-and-seek amidst the brush and trees and rocks; others were shooting with bows and arrows. The little girls had dolls, of rags, and stuffed, painted buckskin. They all viewed him out of their sparkling black eyes, and the girls giggled the same as white girls.
Jimmie’s squaw shoved him from behind.
“U-ga-shé!” she ordered. “Go!”
After all, thought Jimmie, if he had to live here for a while, he might better pretend to enjoy himself, until he got a good chance to escape. So he boldly joined in the game of hide-and-seek. At first everybody there let him alone. But he chased around, with the others, his shirt flapping, and soon he was one of the “gang” and was being shouted at in Apache.
The one-eyed boy and Nah-che and several others of that age stayed by themselves, playing a game with raw-hide cards, and talking. They were too old for foolishness.
This night Jimmie slept in the squaw’s hut. There was a feast and dance, judging by the noise that he heard when awake. Nah-che came in late. In the morning the red-headed boy went away on foot with three Apaches who evidently had been visitors at the village; and as he did not return during the day, he probably belonged somewhere else, himself.
II
JIMMIE LEARNS TO BE APACHE
These were the principal band of the Cho-kon-en Apaches who were called Chiricahua (“Great Mountain”) Apaches because of the Chiricahua Mountains amidst which they lived. But Cho-kon-en was their own name.
The pleasant-faced Cochise was the head chief. He was about fifty-five years old. The captain Go-yath-lay or “One-who-yawns” was the war chief. He was forty years old. The Mexicans whom he had fought had given him the name Geronimo (Her-on-i-mo), which is Spanish for Jerome.