The cañon narrowed a little as the stream curved, and Stone got a better chance to watch the immobile faces of the savages, riding grimly on, fierce of feature, keeping pace with the whites.
They came to the side-gorge, its eroded walls of white limestone, sculptured into irregular ledges, pitted with cave hollows where ruins showed; dazzling in the sun. The gorge was about a hundred feet in width. A tiny brook meandered through green patches beneath cottonwoods and tumbled into the main creek. They turned into it, following Harvey and Larkin. Healy had acquired a sort of swaggering bravado. The file of Indians on their left halted to let them pass, regarding them as if they were shadows rather than men, though the guttering of their eyes was plain as the balls shifted in the gleaming whites. The right-hand troop lined up across the main cañon and were joined by the others to form a living barrier. It was evident that the Apaches intended them to go no farther.
A quarter of a mile in the ravine Harvey stopped the burros. The Indians had not yet moved from their position.
"Start in to make noon-camp as usual," he said. "Don't let 'em think we're feazed. They're all young bucks and they're goin' to be difficult to handle. Mebbe they'll be satisfied to warn us. Prob'ly order us back. But if they think we're scared, they'll stampede the whole outfit, take all we've got, an' leave what's left of us for the coyotes after they've had their little fun. It's up to us. Git
