"Ugh! Good. He is young. He is poor. He has no ponies. He will never have any. Send Warning is poor. How will he pay for Rita?"
"He is rich among his people. He is a great chief."
Ni-ha-be sprung out of the lodge and looked hurriedly around for her adopted sister. Rita had never imagined till that moment how much she was loved by the earnest-hearted Apache girl. Ni-ha-be's arms were twining around her neck, and she was weeping bitterly as she exclaimed,
"He shall not take you away from me. You are not a pale-face any more. You are Apache!"
Rita could not help crying, for the idea of the change which was coming to her was getting more and more difficult to deal with.
They were interrupted by the stately approach of old Many Bears.
"Young squaws foolish. Know nothing. Must laugh. Go to lodge now. Three days go to fort."
Three days? Was it so near? The two friends were glad to go into the lodge, as they were told, and cry it out together.
The nearest United States post at which there were likely to be any traders was still a "two days' journey" to the northward, but Many Bears had actually now received a message from his tribe that there would be "heap presents" for those who should come in time to get them, and he was more than ever anxious to discover if Send Warning had been telling him the truth. His first proposition had been, as before, that Murray should send for what he wanted, and have it brought to the Apache camp, but that had been declared out of the question.
"Ugh! Good. Then Send Warning go with chief. Buy pony. Buy heap other things. Come back and take young squaw to lodge."