Mohave County miner and our mineral wealth., 1922-08-04

They Had Scarcely Gone a Hundred
 Yards When an Indian Stepped Into
 the Path Twenty Yards Ahead.
 yards when an Indian stepped into the path twenty yards ahead. Instinctive- ly Dave threw his rife up. but Erskine caught his arm The Indian had lifted his hand-palm upward. Shawnee '" said the lad, as two more appeared from the bushes. The eyes of the two tidewater boys grew large, and both cllnched their guns convulsively. The Indian spokesman, paid nN heed except to Erskine-and only from the lads face. in which surprise was succeeded by sorrow and then deep thoughtful ness. could they guess what the gut tural speech meant. until Erskine turned to them.
 They were not on the war path against the whites, he explained. His er-father-Kahtoo, the big chief, the king-was very i'll, and his mes- sage. brought by them, was that Frs kline should come back to the tribe and become chief, as the chiefs only daugh:sr was dead and his only SOD had been killed by the palefaces. They knew that in the fight at the fort Ersklne had killed Shawnee, his tor mentor, for they knew the arrow, which Erskine had not had time to withdraw. The dead Shawnees brOther-CroOked Lightning-was with them. He 1t was who had recognized the boy the day before, and they had kept him from killing Ersklne from the bushes. At that moment gigan- tic savage stepped from the brush. The boys frame quivered, straight ened, grew rigid, but he met the ma levolent glare turned on him with emOtiOnleSs face and himself quietly , began to speak while Harry and Hugh and even Dave watched him en- thralled; for the lad was Indian now and the old chiefs mantle was about his shoulders. He sat his horse like a king and spoke as king. He thanked them for holding back Crooked Light ning's evil hand, but-cOntemptuOusly he spat toward the huge savage-he was not to die by that hand. He was paleface and the Indians had slain his white mother He had forgiven that, for he loved the old chief and his foster mother and brother and sis ter. and the tribe had always been kind to him. Then they had killed his white father and he had gone to visit his kindred by the big waters, and now he loved them. He had fled from the Shawnees because of the cruelty of Crooked Lightning's brother. whom he had slain. But if the Indians were falling into evil ways and. following evil cOunsels, his heart was sad. IN
 "I will come when the leaves fall" he eoncisided, ,"but Cr0Qksd skightning must pitch his lodge in the Wilderness until he can show that his heart Is good" And then with an imperious gesture he waved his hand toward the west:
 Now go!
 It was hard even for Dave to realize that the lad, to all purposes, was actu- ally then the chief of powerful tribe. and even he was little awed by the Instant obedience of the savages, who, without word, melted into the bushes and disappeared. Dave recovered him. self with little chuckle only when without word Erskine clucked Fire. fly forward, quite unOnsciously taking the lead. Nearing sunset, from a little hill Dave pointed to thin blue wisp of smoke rising far ahead from the green eypanse
 Continued Next Week.
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 It is estimated that abOut SS. .O0O.-