"Well, if you don't start back up the pass pretty soon, you won't have any chance. Do you think you can keep your word with us?"
"Reckon we kin, with white men like you. So'll all the rest, when we tell 'em it don't cover the mine. You take your own chances on that."
"We do."
"Then we've no ill-will about this little scrimmage. Mebbe you did us a good turn."
"You may say that. Tell your mates I warn 'em to let the Indians alone down here. There's too many of 'em."
"Tell you what, now, old man, there's something about you that ain't so bad, arter all."
That was the remark of the first miner Murray set loose, but the second added,
"You've got a hard fist of your own, though. My head rings yet."
"It'd ring worse if it had been cracked by an Apache war-club. You and your mates travel!"
They plunged into the thicket for their horses, and when they came out again Murray and Steve had disappeared.