Page:Edward Ellis--Alden the Pony Express Rider.djvu/259

 the general rule, that is what he would have done.

Much has been said and written about the gratitude of the American Indian. That he sometimes displays that virtue cannot be denied, but among the wild tribes of the plains, or Southwest, the rule is the other way. I have referred to this elsewhere. The first person an Apache strives to kill when the chance offers is he who has given him bread and drink. He is as quick to bite the hand that has fed his hunger as a rattlesnake is to strike the foot that crushes him.

It is a pleasure therefore to tell the truth regarding the Indian (whose tribe Alden Payne never learned) that had been spared by the amateur Pony Express Rider. He might have made it bad for the youth who was riding from him, and who as a consequence could not keep an eye upon his every movement. When Alden looked back as he did several times, he saw the warrior still on his perch, and watching him, but the huge bow in his hand was not raised nor was another arrow drawn to the head, while the horseman was within reach of the primitive weapon.

This strange situation could last only a brief