Frank Fowler

“ They say he’s gone into the mountain to talk with Manitou; and from time to time queer sounds are heard that set the Indians almost wild—strains of sweet music come out of cracks in the rocks, and then a strange voice like the rumbling of thunder follows. And at such times every Zuni will be sure to flatten himself, face downward, on the ground, listening with all his might, but not daring to look, for fear he might see too much, and be struck blind; because that’s what the Witch Doctor has warned them might happen if they got too curious. ”

“ Plenty of signs pointed that way—they could hear loud voices, and the laughter of children, just as though they might be approaching a village of white people; for after all, children do not differ very much, whether they be white, black, copper-colored or yellow; it is only when they grow older and copy the characteristics of their parents that they change, and follow the groove of their species.
“I can see the cliff, all right!” announced Billie, in some little excitement, as he stretched his fat neck to a dangerous degree, “rubbering,” as he himself described it. ”

“ CHAPTER XV.—A MEETING WITH THE MEDICINE MAN.
“There, what do you say to that now, Billie?” exclaimed Donald, as he turned to see the fat chum staring at the snake, with whitened cheeks, and a horrified expression on his plump face.
“Gosh! it ain’t so that they take out the poison sack, is it?” muttered Billie; “and that stuff must be the deadly thing they push into a fellow when they strike! Oh! ain’t they the limit, though, them rattlers? And I ought to be thankful every day I live that I didn’t go all the way down into that hole when I slipped.” ”

“ There was no telling how many of the wolves and coyotes there might be. If he kept on shooting them down, and more continued to arrive, the dreadful moment must come when he would run out of ammunition. What then? The programme ceased to interest Billie after that stage. True, he would still have his trusty hunting-knife, and that possessed a keen edge on both sides; but what a puny weapon it must always be in the hands of one unaccustomed to wielding a blade like that, and with an unnumbered throng of four-footed adversaries leaping about him. ”

“ Billie panted, as he still yanked at the stout bridle of the snorting mule.
“It’s the panther skin, more than the venison, though I have known horses to object to carrying home meat,” Donald told him. “You see, they don’t like the smell of the fresh blood; and that skin just gets poor old Bray wild. He knows just by his instinct that it came from a terrible wild beast, that would jump on his back, and claw him, if it ever had the chance. And the mule isn’t intelligent enough to understand that it’s dead now, and couldn’t hurt him.” ”

“ Billie was the only one to snatch up a gun, which he happened to have alongside at that particular moment.
“Look there, will you?” called out Donald; “see him scuttle off into the darkness, of the shadows? An Injun as sure as you live. Oh! if only I had 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 in the same sense as it did these boys of the plains. ”

“ Am I right there, Pard Donald?”
“You’re cleaving close to the line, let me tell you, Chum Adrian; and you’ll find that money talks even among the Zuni and the Hopi Indians, just as it does, they say, over in Switzerland or Italy, where every blessed person, young and old, has the itching palm as they call it, so you can’t ask a civil question without fishing around in your pocket for a tip. But let’s forget all that, now, and mingle with the crowd.”
“First of all,” suggested Adrian, wisely, “don’t you think we’d better be making a camp for ourselves? ”

“ Perhaps the time will come when that talking machine will be installed in a lodge in the center of the village, to be listened to each fine night by every brave, squaw and papoose in the settlement. Times are changing fast all over the world, even with savage people; and I’ve heard men say that this same talking machine is doing more to educate savages than all the missionaries in the world.”
“Perhaps that’s so,” remarked Donald; “but here we are at the ledge, and let’s hope we’ll have little trouble in getting up where Billie is.” ”

“ Adrian went on to say, gravely, “it seems to me they never could give that strange dance day after day, and have it still hold its solemn, religious character.”
“Never!” declared Donald, who knew so much about these Indians of the rock dwellings; “it can be danced only once a year, at a most particular season. Everything has to be just so, the moon at a certain age, and all sorts of other conditions are to be suitable, or it loses its significance. But then money is a strong factor nowadays, and if that tempter only made his offer big enough, he might get the old chief to consent.” ”

“ If they do attack us, remember that under no conditions are you to injure a hair on the head of a Zuni brave. Give the white men all the wounds, because it is their doing.”
“But what can we do to stave it off any longer, Adrian?” begged the fat chum.
“I hardly know,” replied Adrian, himself at a loss to grasp any idea that promised hope; “if only Donald would hurry along everything might be well. You don’t see anything of him, do you, Billie?” ”

“ I really believe they know that this water is bad to drink.”
“What, ponies know better than human beings, do they?” demanded Billie, hardly relishing such a state of affairs.
“They’ve been given an unerring instinct, where we depend on reason, and that often fails us. Just watch a horse feeding, and notice how he refuses to touch all kinds of weeds, and how a cow drops the same out of her mouth after she’s scooped in a whole bunch of grass. Instinct, and nothing else. But there’s no use in us hanging out here, when we can soon get to good water.” ”

“ It was almost too strange to believe, but they had all the evidence necessary in that soiled notebook, with the two warning notes fitting snugly in the torn places.
“Well, after this,” said Donald, slowly and earnestly, “I’m never going to believe any man is all bad. Even Tod Harkness has human feelings; and if he had had a home like mine perhaps he’d have been a good man today. I only hope he’s found it so fine to be doing decent things, that he’ll keep it up after this. If I thought so, I’d even try and get dad to give him a job at the Keystone.” ”

“ And this fakir of a showman can’t just swoop off with the main part of the village in the wink of an eye. If they concluded to go with him they’d have to take some time to make preparations, you see; and that’d let us have a chance to whisper a few interesting things in the ear of the old chief, that might make him sit up and take notice.”
“You’re right, Adrian, quite right,” admitted Billie, as though fully convinced by this time; “there’s no desperate need of hurry; and just as you often say, many a well laid plan’s gone to pieces because of too much haste. ”

“ Adrian assured him; “but this is a queer country, and all sorts of strange things happen. Remember, now, about that poisoned spring. With so many crawling critters around here, it struck me that a fellow would be only showing ordinary wisdom to look under his blanket before he lay down.”
“That’s right,” added Donald; “and I’m going to put that horse-hair lariat of mine in a double loop around the tent; because cowboys say that a snake will never crawl across one of that sort. The hair tickles ’em, and scares ’em off, I understand.” ”

“ It was not so bad with Adrian. He could command his speech, though almost as much staggered as poor Billie at sight of the Indian belt.
“They didn’t lose any time in getting busy, did they, Donald?” was what first came into his mind to say.
“I should say not,” replied the boy who held the belt. “While we were away some sneak crept into our tent here, and hid this under our traps. You can see what the game is; later on the medicine man will learn of his loss, and set up the biggest howl ever. ”

“ Donald turned his head to glance at the fat boy when Billie made the assertion which starts this chapter.
“All of which is true enough, Billie,” he remarked, with a twinkle in his eye; “and given a couple more such days we ought to get to where we’re aiming for. But you know from past experiences, you never can tell what’s going to happen in this Arizona country. Any time a fellow is apt to run across some sort of an outlaw cattle rustler, and be taken in by him as an easy mark!” ”

“ Here’s Wireless been looking over that way every little while for ten minutes past. The wind’s rising, and all around us the sand is stirring, so that the air’s getting thicker all the while. Before half an hour we’ll have the worst of it around us. It’s about noon now, and let’s hope that we get to the hills before night sets in.”
“What’s the programme?” asked Billie, undaunted Billie, carelessly enough.
“Keep as close together as we can travel, and go straight ahead,” answered Donald; “there’ll be all sorts of queer noises around us, so pay no attention to them. ”

“ Adrian continued; while Billie stood near by, listening eagerly.
“Every once in so often some of the hot-blooded young bucks get a notion that things are too tame on the reservation,” Donald started to say with the air of one who knew full well what he was talking about.
“And so they start out to take a turn around,” Adrian added, “thinking they ought to copy after their ancestors, and feel wild for a spell. Sometimes they play havoc among the white, being filled with firewater; and then there is trouble enough, with some of the same young bucks getting shot. ”

“ Billie often said these days, “it’s this: that whenever you do want a gun you want it in a mighty big hurry; and I don’t calculate to get left more’n I can help.”
“We’ve got to let them make a search; but neither of those white men shall take a step inside our tent,” declared Adrian, resolutely, as he too picked up his gun. ”

“ It was far from a pleasant task that the boy had on his hands, trying to thrust that clawing, growling beast away with his gun, all the while he was fairly wild to work its mechanism, and get a good cartridge into the chamber.
You may not suspect what a powerful beast a panther is, just by watching him pace restlessly back and forth in his cage when you visit the Zoo, or see him in a menagerie; but those hardened muscles of his are capable of a tremendous force, once the beast is aroused to a state of fury. ”

“ When Billie first came out into the Southwest, bearing that fine new repeating Marlin firearm, he had never been much of a sportsman. But ambition seized him; and of late he had been doing wonderful stunts, even to shooting a grizzly bear that had threatened to make things interesting for him, unless he proceeded to turn the tables.
Hence Billie felt that he had a perfect right to inflate his chest, and look of some consequence whenever they talked of hunters’ exploits. He might be a clumsy hand with a good many things ”

“ Mackay give him an unruly cow pony called Jupiter, that few of the punchers cared to ride; and for weeks in and weeks out Billie had his regular daily stunt with that raging beast.
How many times he went over its head no one knew, for they had lost all count; but somehow the fat boy seemed to bear a charmed life, for his hurts were all of a minor character. And in the end he won out, just as the others knew he would; for given time running water can wear away a stone. ”

“ When there was anything in the line of cooking going on, he could show an astonishing amount of spryness for a fellow so stout.
“You never saw anything like this before, I reckon, Donald?” Adrian asked, as the two of them busied themselves getting things ready, so that when Billie had his blaze started they could put the coffee and frying-pan on, and thus begin dinner.
“No, and I’ve always wanted to have a chance to watch how they did these queer stunts,” replied the other; “but between us, Ad, I’ve pretty nearly got my fill of Zuni practices.” ”

“ Billie went on to remark, “I’ll be able to stagger some of the fellows at home, when I get there. But there’s one thing I’m ahoping, and that is that none of them wrigglers got away. I’d sure hate to wake up tonight from a jolly good snooze, to find a big old rattler perched on my chest, and ready to jab me with his business end if I so much as moved my little finger. Wow! it makes me creep just to think of it.” ”

“ Take it from me now, that there must be some secret way of getting in back here, if only we had the key to the mystery!”
“Whew! is that what you think too, Donald?” asked Billie, taking time to stare at the wall of rock, which up to now had interested him very little, since it was the Witch Doctor himself for whom he was looking.
“I reckon it must be something like that,” Donald admitted. “We don’t believe in magic, and all that stuff; there must be a real explanation for everything that looks so queer; if, as Adrian says, we only had the clue to the trail. ”

“ He has looked in their tent, and did not find the Sacred Belt. If it were there it could not escape the eye of Manitou’s messenger. Then why should a white man be able to find it? These white men do not like us. They have tried to drive us away from the village of our friends, the Zunis. The chief knows why this should be so. Send then a warrior to the village to fetch your chief here, Pick-ne-quan-to, that he may be the one to judge what shall be done. If he says that a paleface can do what a Zuni medicine man is unable to accomplish, then we will agree to letting that man enter our tent. ”

“ As he turned away after this long and earnest talk with the old Zuni chief he felt impelled to look to one side, as though some influence forced him to turn his eyes that way. And just as he half expected, he discovered that Braddon had been intently observing him, possibly much of the time he and the old chief held their heart-to-heart talk.
There was a dark scowl on the strong face of the big man. He smiled in a queer way, as he saw Adrian looking toward him ”