CHAPTER III.
ON THE TRAIL TO THE ZUNI VILLAGE.
"Well, here we are on the road to the Zuni village, and with pretty neara whole day's journey to the good behind us!"
Broncho Billie said this as he rode close behind his two chums. Severaldays had passed since that thrilling adventure with the rattlesnakes ofthe rocky den; and the boys had made ample preparations for their trip.
As it was so much more comfortable to sleep under some sort of shelter,at the earnest solicitation of Billie, who liked comfort when he couldhave it, they had accepted the offer of a tent from Corse Tibbals, theoverseer and head man at the mine, being one that had served him many atime in the past, but which he felt he could easily spare, seeing thatthese lads had worked a miracle in the way things were happening at theRed Spar Mine.
This same tent was loaded upon an extra mount, a sorrel mule that theboys had named "Bray," because that seemed to be his favorite amusementat various times during the day and night. And there were also manybundles fastened to the back of the pack animal, said to contain allsorts of food, and presents from the miners and their wives; all of whomfelt so grateful to Donald and his chums because they had brought thedangerous condition of affairs to an end, and by making new contractswith the men, caused happiness to dwell in the shanties that composedthe little mining hamlet near the Red Spar.
Billie liked to lead Bray. Many were the glances he cast during the dayupon those various packages, the contents of which appealed to himgreatly; because it happened that the fat boy possessed a pretty healthyappetite, and the subject of gratifying the same occupied considerableof his attention when awake.
They had really put in quite an arduous eight hours, and boys, as wellas ponies, showed more or less signs of being tired as the afternoonshadows lengthened, and it seemed as though the day would soon come to aclose, when they might be looking for a decent camping spot in order topass the first night out on the trail.
Donald turned his head to glance at the fat boy when Billie made theassertion which starts this chapter.
"All of which is true enough, Billie," he remarked, with a twinkle inhis eye; "and given a couple more such days we ought to get to wherewe're aiming for. But you know from past experiences, you never can tellwhat's going to happen in this Arizona country. Any time a fellow is aptto run across some sort of an outlaw cattle rustler, and be taken in byhim as an easy mark!"
At that Adrian could be heard chuckling; while Billie turned fiery red,and appeared to bristle up more or less, as he hastily went on to say:
"Oh! go on and have your little joke, if it gives you any pleasure,fellows. But I'd do that same thing again, I reckon under similarcircumstances. That poor chap was in a bad way, what with his cuts, andbeing nigh starved. I own up I didn't just like his looks, but he was ina peck of trouble, and I just didn't have the heart to desert him tillhe'd got to feeling better, and said he thought he might get on alone.Never thought to ask his name either; and when I told the boys all aboutit, and described him as a fellow with a squint in his left eye, why,they just laughed themselves sick over it, and told me I'd been playingnurse to the meanest rascal that ever went unhung."
"Yes, not a man around the Red Spar has a good word to say about thatTod Harkness," ventured Donald, still grinning; "he's been a cattlerustler and a general all-round shirk, a thief and everything that'sbad. They thought you'd been sold the worst kind. Why, some of the menwanted to know if the sneak hadn't stolen your pocketbook while you werehelping him walk to a place where you meant to camp, that night you gotlost."
"Well, he didn't, and that's all there is about it," said Billie,firmly. "Mebbe Tod Harkness is everything you say; but he was a mightysick man right then and there. So please forget it. I know I'm soft, andmost anybody can impose on me; but I was born that way; and they say theleopard just can't change his spots. Let that little episode drop. Iain't sorry one whit, I tell you. Do it again if I ran across a sickman, don't care if he was the Old Nick himself. So there!"
Donald gave Adrian a nod as if to say "just see how set he is in hisways;" but neither of them continued making any further remark upon thesubject which was such a sore one with their stout chum.
Indeed, further conversation was rendered out of the question by Bray,for the pack mule took a sudden notion to give tongue; and when he letout his voice no human tones could prevail against the raucous sounds.
"I think I can see where we're going to put up tonight!" Donald calledout, some ten minutes afterwards.
At that Billie brightened visibly.
"Oh! that's the best thing I've heard you say for a whole hour, Donald,"he declared, with some signs of excitement. "Then, chances are we'll begetting busy with supper before a great while. That always pleases me,you know, boys."
"Yes, and it's a lucky thing for all of us that the wives of thoseminers saw fit to make up that hunky-dory pack of supplies, when theyheard where we meant to head for, before starting back to Keystoneranch," Adrian went on to say.
"Oh! I'm always free to admit that I've got some appetite along withme," acknowledged Billie, complacently; for nothing they could ever sayalong these lines seemed to disturb him in the least.
Before twenty minutes had come and gone they were proceeding to get thetent in position; at least Billie and Adrian set about accomplishingthis task, after the horses had been staked out where they could nibbleat the grass growing near the spring hole; while Donald arranged afireplace out of convenient stones, hunter-fashion, it being wider infront for the frying-pan to set there, while the coffee-pot couldstraddle the narrow section in the rear.
Billie was as happy as a lark; he always acted that way when a bustle inthe way of getting ready to eat came along.
"It's hard for me to believe that, after dreaming about it for years,I'm going to actually set eyes on them queer Zunis in a couple of days,"he started to say; and then turning quickly on Donald, as though he hadremembered something he may have intended asking, he went on: "didn'tyou say that this was about the time of year when they had all theirdances, and carried on such high jinks?"
"I wouldn't be surprised, from what Corse Tibbals told me, if we justhappened to hit it about right for all the ceremonies they go throughwith every year," Donald replied. "And I reckon, now, that you mean totry and get some snapshots while that native circus is going on, don'tyou, Billie?"
"Just what I'm thinking of trying," admitted the other, naively. "CourseI've got a heap of pictures of the Zunis and Hopis at home, but thatain't the same as snapping 'em off all by yourself. I'd rather have apoor picture that I'd taken myself, than the finest any artist couldproduce. Ain't that right, Adrian?"
He always appealed to the other when making any statement of this sort;and as usual Adrian quickly backed him up.
"Of course you would, and rightly too, Billie; because that shows youwere on deck when the dancing was going on. For a fellow couldn't verywell take a picture of a thing unless he was there, could he?"
"Sure he couldn't, 'less he piked a copy from another picture," Billiedeclared. "And I only hope I'll get chances to use up a whole string offilms, with the girls and their queer head-dresses showing like the HopiIndians do, and p'raps the old medicine-man all dressed up in his togsadoing a two-step, while he shakes his gourds and rattles, and tinkleshis little bells in great style. Oh! I'm cram full of the subject, letme tell you, boys; and I'll never be happy till I see it all with myvery eyes."
"Well, what are we going to have for supper?" asked Donald, who knewvery well that only in this way could the talkative Billie be made tobranch off the subject that had begun to be wearisome to the rest of thelittle party.
The ruse succeeded, too, as it always did; and Billie was quickly atwork undoing several of those mysterious packages which the gratefulwives of the miners had made up for the trio of saddle pards.
His various exclamations of delight must have early convinced bothAdrian and Donald that the fat boy had made numerous satisfactorydiscoveries. And
later on, when that supper was cooked, and they sataround in easy attitudes, consuming the same, they voted that the womenof the Red Spar camp were all "trumps" of the first water; because theyknew what hungry boys liked most.
"Had we better keep any sort of watch tonight?" asked Billie, yawning, acouple of hours after they had finished eating; the interval that hadelapsed having been occupied with much talk along various interestinglines, during which Billie managed as usual to soak up a great deal ofinformation.
"Well, of course the horses are about as good as a sentry," admittedDonald, who had trained his pony, Wireless, to snort, and wake him up incase enemies came prowling around; "but all the same we'd better sleepwith one eye open. It's a mighty poor policy to wait till the horse isstolen before you lock the stable door, so my dad always says. And theremight be some rustler in this section like, well, Billie's good friend,Tod, you know; who just couldn't keep from grabbing our mounts, nomatter how hard he tried."
"Yes," added Adrian, as though to put a clincher in the assertion madeby his chum, "and it'd be no joke for us to be left on foot away offhere, hundreds of miles from home. We'll keep our arms handy, and if anysneak gives us a call, why we can make him sorry he found us at home,that's what."
"Hark! listen to Wireless right now, would you?" exclaimed Donald, in alow, tense voice, as he half arose to his feet, quivering with suddenexcitement.
Billie was the only one to snatch up a gun, which he happened to havealongside at that particular moment.
"Look there, will you?" called out Donald; "see him scuttle off into thedarkness, of the shadows? An Injun as sure as you live. Oh! if only Ihad my gun in my hands. Give him a shot, Billie, why don't you?"
But Billie, although he half raised his Marlin rifle, failed to shoot.Possibly the thought of hurting a human being did not appeal to him inthe same sense as it did these boys of the plains. Then again, perhapsthe haste with which the shadowy figure of the dusky warrior scuttledout of sight rather disconcerted the fat boy. At any rate, Billie onlystood there with his gun half raised; and the next thing he knew therewas nothing but the moonlight and the shadows before him.