"No. You are born white. You will go with your father. I am an Apache, and I will go with my father."
Many Bears was listening.
"Send Warning hear what young squaw say? All Apaches say good. She will stay with her own people."
Ni-ha-be consented, nevertheless, to remain with Rita at the post head-quarters as long as her friends were camped close by.
Murray and Steve were anxious to begin their return to civilization, but it would be several days before a "train" would go with an escort, and they did not care to run any farther risks.
So the "farewell" was spread over sufficient time to make all sorts of explanations and promises, and Rita's mind became so full of dreams of her new life that she could easily give up the old one.
Ni-ha-be had never seen so much of the pale-faces before, and Rita tried again and again to persuade her to change her mind, but, on the very last morning of all, she resolutely responded,
"No, Rita, you are all pale-face. All over. Head and heart both belong with white friends. Feel happy. Ni-ha-be only little Indian girl here. Out there, on plains, among mountains, Ni-ha-be is the daughter of a great chief. She is an Apache."
No doubt she was right, but she and Rita had a good long cry over it then, and probably more than one afterward. As for Dolores, she came to the fort to say good-bye, but neither Many Bears nor Red Wolf came with her.
"The heart of the great chief is sore," she said, "and he mourns for his pale-face daughter. Not want to speak."