He turned to his old men and gave an order. Immediately the whole
village became the scene of busy preparations for the march. Sid
watched them with tears in his eyes, while Scotty protested vainly
to Honanta. Where could they go? To Tinajas Atlas, perhaps, there to
hide in some rocky fastness of the desert, forced to fetch water from
long distances and sooner or later to be discovered at the tank by our
border rangers, rounded up and sent back to the reservation.
It must not be! He and Scotty had brought all this upon them; it was
their responsibility to see to it that another and a better home should
be found for them. Perhaps Scotty was right, in the long run. If they
could retain control of this mine and operate it successfully, there
would be money enough to repay Honanta forever.
By noon the village reported ready for the march. Men, women, and
children, they would go forth on foot into the pitiless desert, and
somehow, through untold sufferings, incredible endurance, would make
that march to a new home--but it could never, never, approach the
freedom and peace of this spot, the Arms of the Great Mystery!
Towards its high red walls Honanta now raised his hands in silent
prayer and farewell. Soon it would become a sun-baked, scorched, arid
ruin, the home of saguarro and choya, a place that no one but white men
would want. With its empty, bare and mud-caked basin, that once held
smiling and life-giving water--Red Mesa was dead.
Sid looked on, so overcome with sympathy that he had not given their
own problems a thought. Yet, with the last of the water, they too would
face the pitiless scourge of thirst. Big John would have to be moved to
Papago Tanks, somehow. But all that could wait.
“Good-by, white boy!” said Honanta, coming up to grip his hand
strongly. “Tell your father that, some day, I will visit him--when my
people are provided for.”
He turned to give the order to march.
Who sneers at coincidences? They happen to us daily, in those abrupt
meetings of chance whose obscure workings of cause and effect we know
nothing of, nor can trace. One happened now; for, as Honanta had raised
his head to give the order, at that instant there came a hail from Big
John on his cot on the apron brink.
“Hi, Sid!--Say!--Hyar comes yore _daddy_!--An’ that Apache feller!” he
sang out. For a moment Sid stood looking at him in sheer amazement. Had
Big John gone delirious? How and why had Colonel Colvin come here? But
if it was really, truly so----
“Wait, Honanta! Wait!--You _shall_ see my father, and your own son,
sooner than any of us expected!--Wait!” cried Sid, running after the
chief to seize his arm.
With Sid, unable to comprehend how or why his father could actually be
here, they went together along the empty tank to the apron brim.
But it was true! Down there on the sands of the valley two riders were
coming, and Honanta gave a great cry as his keen eyes recognized the
smaller of the two.