"Many soldiers?" Naiche asked.

"Too many for us to fight," Geronimo said.

Naiche said, "Then we must go."

"No. We must loose our horses," said Geronimo.

Naiche said, "They will run to water."

"They will run to water," Geronimo agreed.

Naiche asked wonderingly, "You would give good horses to white soldiers?"

"These horses are too spent to serve us any longer," Geronimo said. "Let them go."

Tie ropes were slipped. Following the smell of water, the horses were off at a gallop.

Geronimo led his warriors forward. He stopped them just beneath the rim of the canyon in which the water hole lay. Again he thrust bits of brush into his headband and crawled forward to look.

The thirsty horses had come in and were crowding each other at the water hole. A young lieutenant was ordering his men to mount. A scout whom Geronimo had seen, but whose name he had never heard, was arguing with the lieutenant.

"Don't do it!" the scout said. "Don't do it, Lieutenant!"

"You say these horses were loosed by Geronimo's men?" the lieutenant asked.

The scout said, "Couldn't of been n.o.body else, an' every horse wears the Pratt brand. Geronimo must of stole them there. I figure we'll find the Pratt ranch burned an' maybe the Pratt brothers dead. But don't dash off in all directions thisaway."

"If Geronimo's lost his horses, he and his men are afoot!" the young lieutenant exclaimed.

"The only horses Geronimo ever _lost_ was them our scouts or soldiers took away from him," the scout said. "He's turned these loose for some deviltry of his own. An' did you ever try to hunt Apaches when they was afoot?"

"No," the lieutenant admitted. "But they should be easy to catch."

[Ill.u.s.tration]

"'Bout as easy as so many quail with six extry wings," the scout said.

"You can't catch 'em."

The lieutenant said sternly, "Mount and come with us."

"All right," the scout said. "But don't leave no horses here!"

"I won't. But we must travel fast so I'll leave the pack mules."

"Then leave a guard too."

"I'll need every man," the lieutenant said.

"S'pose the Apaches come here?" the scout asked.

"They won't," the lieutenant said. "They're too cowardly. Geronimo and every last one of his men are running for Mexico. We must overtake them.

Geronimo's the last Apache war chief! When he's captured or killed, it will mean an end to Indian wars here in the Southwest! The least I'll get out of this is a captain's rating, and perhaps even a major's!"

The scout said, "If I'm asked, I'll say I told you 'twas a fool thing to do."

"Say what you please," the lieutenant said. "I know what I'm doing."

The soldiers followed the scout, who in turn followed the back trail of the horses. When they found the place where the horses had been loosed, the lieutenant thought, they would also find helpless Apaches on foot.

When the soldiers were out of sight, Geronimo signaled his men forward.

They drank at the water hole. Then they rummaged hastily through the packs and tents and took all the rifles and ammunition they could find.

Minutes later, each warrior was mounted on a mule. Geronimo led them into rough and rocky ground where mules could travel but horses could not.

Long before the young lieutenant brought his men back to their camp, every Apache was safe.

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

_A Gallant Soldier_

Sitting in the shade of some pines on the rim of a lofty mountain, Geronimo stared down at Mexico's Bavispe River. From the mountain top the river looked like a silver ribbon that followed the curves of the valley and gave back the sparkle of the sun.

Geronimo shook his head. When he was a medicine man, he had tried in vain to see the visions that should appear to all _shamans_. Though he was no longer a _shaman_, visions came now.

He saw that long past day when he had stolen Delgadito's war horse to fight a duel of stallions with the son of Ponce. Again he went with Delgadito on the raid, and saw the two Papagoes who had come to steal horses. Once more he lived in his mother's wickiup, and knew the love that had warmed him there. Next followed his happy days with Alope, but not the ma.s.sacre at Kas-Kai-Ya.

Then the battle that avenged the ma.s.sacre, the ambush of the California Volunteers in Apache Pa.s.s, and the battles that had been since.

He thought of all that had pa.s.sed since his first fight with the two Papagoes. Geronimo had been twelve years old then. He was fifty-eight now. He had known forty-six years of war.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

More visions came. Geronimo saw old Mangus Coloradus, leaving the Mimbreno village to surrender to the white man. He saw Cochise, who fought fiercely for ten years after the death of Mangus Coloradus but finally gave in too.

No more visions appeared. Geronimo turned to Naiche, who sat beside him.

"You told me that you long to see your wife, your children, your relatives," he said.

"I do," said Naiche. "Have you no wish again to visit your blood kin?"

"No one awaits me--"

Geronimo was interrupted by the whistle of a hawk, the sentry's signal that an enemy came. The sentry signaled again, the enemy was not in force.