When they had danced around the central Indian for a minute, there came a gap in the outer cordon, and the buck who had been in the center stepped to the edge of the precipice, and hurled first his rifle, then his bows and arrows, then his scalping-knife and hatchet, into the chasm.
Having thus relieved himself of his arms, the buck returned, took his place among those who were clasping hands in a circle, and another armed buck got in the center.
After chanting and circling around the armed buck, the cordon broke again, and he stepped to the brink and relieved himself of his weapons.
This strange proceeding must have been going on for some time, for the second buck, as the pards could see, was the last one with weapons.
When the second buck had stripped himself, he started on a lope up the trail.
The scout, the trapper, and the girl, weapons in hand, backed against the cliff and waited.
All the other Apaches fell in behind the one recently disarmed, and trotted after him in single file.
Arriving opposite the whites, not an Indian paid the slightest attention to them. With eyes glittering and head-feathers bobbing, they kept on up the trail until the last one had vanished behind the jutting rocks.
Old Nomad almost collapsed.