Page:Allan Dunn--Dead Man's Gold.djvu/192

178 He held out his hand and Stone gripped it. The chance that had thrown them together had ripened into friendship. They both knew each other as men, for all their faults.

They had more news that day in the shape of a paper from Phoenix which gave an account of the straying off the reservation of forty Apaches who had been caught in a cloudburst in Stone Men Cañon.

"From the investigation that has been made," read the pithy despatch, "the Indians seem to have resented the presence in the neighbourhood of some unfortunate prospectors who evidently perished, either by storm or massacre. The bodies of two burros, one of which was still packed with mining equipment, bears out this belief. Some arms were found showing the Apaches had taken the war-trail. But few corpses have been found, save those of the burros and some horses belonging to the Indians, most of the party being evidently buried beneath tons of débris. Buzzards flocking over the cañon where it joins that of Tonto Creek attracted the attention of the guards sent to round up the missing Indians. The Apaches on the reservation deny all knowledge of the affair which will result in stricter rules after a report to the Government. The fact that the Indians were in possession of rifles will undoubtedly cause an inquiry. The prospectors were well off the Indian lines, but the Apaches are notoriously jealous of what privileges they consider to be theirs by ownership and naturally uncertain of their boundary. There is no likelihood of any recurrence of such an affair but prospectors