“If I hadn’t, my scalp would have been hung up in a Sioux lodge years ago.”
The scout and the boy rode on, halted at the door of the cabin, and Dell came out and vaulted lightly into her saddle.
“Now,” said she, with a sparkle in her eyes, “we’re off for Tonio Pass.”
Could the scout have foreseen what was to happen on that venturesome journey, rather than take Dauntless Dell with him, he would have had Doyle send her to Bowie under escort.
But, to quote Catamount Tom, the old hunter, “we can’t be so wise all the time as we are just some of the time;” so the little party galloped down the cañon on its way through the hostile country to Tonio Pass.
CHAPTER XXV.
MODERN WITCHCRAFT.
Of all the murderous chiefs of the Apaches, including in the list such demons as Victorio, Nachez, Chato, Loco, and Juh, perhaps none had given the military authorities more trouble than Geronimo. Certainly none was more warlike, for at the age of sixteen Geronimo had become a chief. From that time his raiding began, his blood-thirsty operations being carried on in Northern Mexico and Southern New Mexico and Arizona.
When one side of the border became too hot for him, Geronimo would slip across to the other, repeating and repeating the maneuver until finally run to earth and driven to the place where he belonged. Watching his chances, he would again dig up the hatchet stealthily, evade the vigilance of his guards, “jump” the reservation and continue his old tactics.