“Still am!” rumbled Hinchman, emphatically. “I’m old ‘White Father Hinch’ to all the Navaho north of us. They come to me with all their troubles or send in runners about it. One got in last night with a tough one for me to straighten out. It’s a medicine panther, Colvin, that’s been stealing old Neyani’s sheep. The Indians are all plumb scared of him; heap big medicine! They swear he’s black--can you beat that?” “Black!” echoed Colonel Colvin, incredulously, while the boys listened in with flapping ears. “Freak coloration, eh? The Far East has black leopards, you know, occurring clear down into Sumatra. It’s possible, Hinchy. Where did the cougar get the black on his ugly face? No one knows--nor why there are both black and spotted leopards, either. But I don’t see where you should worry any, Hinchy--just say the word and we’ll go up there and shoot him for you. We’ve got dogs, you know.” “Precisely just what you can’t do, Colvin!” exclaimed Hinchman, energetically. “It would be the worst kind of a sacrilege in the Navaho’s eyes. You see, Dsilyi, the Navaho demigod, _he_ had four panthers, a white one to the north, a tawny one to the west, a blue one to the south, and a black one to the east. The Indians just know that this is Dsilyi’s black panther--there’s no use arguing with them! Therefore, either old Neyani or his son, Niltci, has been up to some deviltry and the panther is being sent as a punishment. Not a redskin of the lot will shoot him on a bet, nor even dare track him. You don’t know how superstitious they are, Colvin! Sooner than build a fire with a single stick from a hogan in which someone has died, a Navaho would freeze to death. Sooner than touch a hair of Dsilyi’s medicine panther, old Neyani and his whole family would let him take all their sheep and starve to death. Right nice mix-up fo’ me to unravel, eh?” “You’re dead right!” agreed the Colonel emphatically. “Say, the worst uprising the Army ever had to deal with came from just such a freak animal as this. You remember the Arapaho row in ’79, Hinchy?” “You bet! I sure hope this isn’t goin’ to be anything like that! a white buffalo, wasn’t it? And now, I’ve got a black cougar and a mess of Indian superstitions on my hands!” CHAPTER III THE VALLEY OF THE CLIFF DWELLERS