“And weren’t all your expenses paid?”

“Yes.”

“Didn’t they treat you white?”

“They thought they did.”

“Don’t you know they did?  They paid all your traveling expenses.  They paid for your board and your clothes.  There wasn’t anything that cost you a cent.  What do you mean then by saying ’they thought they did’?”

“It was hard for me when I come back to the Navajo people.  They laugh at my clothes.  They think what I have learned is no good and pretty soon I am ready to give up all I have learned so that the Navajo shan’t laugh at me some more.”

“That isn’t it, Thomas Jefferson,” said Zeke tartly.  “You’re expected to come back to your tribe and show them how to live.  That’s the way a good many do.  I never saw an Indian who had been educated and then came back to his tribe and give up because he was afraid some silly girl was going to laugh at him for his clothes or his new education, that, if he let go, he did not swing twice as far in the other direction.  There’s no Indian like a bad Indian.  And no bad Indian is as bad as the one I’m telling you about.”

The Navajo did not respond though his manner betrayed that his anger was steadily rising.

“Now, then, I want to know, Thomas Jefferson, what you were doing with those men down on the side of the Gulch last night,” continued Zeke.

“I did not see men.”

“Well, man, then.  Have it your own way.  Perhaps there was only one of them.  Was it that fellow with the scar on his face?”

“I did not say.”

“Well, that’s what you must do.  You’ve got to tell us who he was.”

“If I do not tell what will you do?”

“Drive you out of camp the same as I would drive a rat out of his hole.”

The Indian laughed but made no other response.

“Now, then, Thomas Jefferson,” said Zeke, angered by the apparent indifference of the young Indian, “did you see that white man or didn’t you?”

“I did not see him.”

“Are you talking straight?”

“I am.”

“It is ‘good talk’ you’re giving me, is it?”

“I did not see the man.”

“Well, then, who was there?”

“I did not see any one.”

“But Fred here says you were talking to somebody.”

“Let him say.”

“All right, T.J.,” said Zeke abruptly.  “We’ll stop here for a while.  I’m not done with you yet.  Now, what I want you to do is to take Kitoni with you and go along the side of the Gulch keeping your eyes open for any sign of a vein.  If you find it you let me know right away.”

“What you do?” inquired the Navajo.

“We shall keep up above the rim and try to find out what is there.  Now mark you, T.J., don’t try any of your tricks on us.  If you do, the first thing you know you’ll be thrown out and there’ll be no cure for it.”

The guide now rejoined the other members of the party and plans were soon made for the day.