The presence of the band of Two Knives was a sort of invasion of the Apache hunting grounds.
The Lipans had no business this side of the mountains. They had come to strike the Apaches, and if they should be allowed to get away unhurt, they would surely come again.
Send Warning had already told how many there were of them. If there were no more than that, none of them ought to be allowed to get away.
Murray could but think that a party of Apaches in the Lipan country would probably be talked about and dealt with very much in the same way, but it seemed to require a special effort for him to think at all.
His head had been in a sort of whirl for some minutes before the time when Many Bears turned suddenly upon him with the question:
"What Send Warning say? His head is very white."
Murray was muttering to himself at the moment, while Dolores handed her husband a stick with a piece of corn bread on the point of it. "She is not an Apache. She is a full-blooded Mexican. Yes, I've seen that woman before."
But the chief's inquiry startled him out of that train of recollection. He could not have answered instantly to save his life, but it was according to Indian notions that he should not speak too quickly, so he had time to recover himself.
"More enemies besides Lipans," he said at length. "Apaches better not forget pale-face miners."
"Ugh!"