The Story of Geronimo Part 15

Geronimo saw Captain Crawford and Lieutenant Gatewood, army officers whose deeds had earned them the respect of all Apaches. There was Al Sieber, famed chief of scouts and one of the very few white men who could think like an Apache. Mickey Free, whom Cochise had been accused of kidnapping years before, stood ready to tell Geronimo and General Crook what each said to the other. Geronimo spoke Apache, Spanish, and some English. General Crook spoke and understood English only.

Proud and haughty as the Apache himself, every inch the warrior, General Crook's eyes met Geronimo's. They did not look away.

Geronimo asked, "What would you talk about?"

"Your return to Arizona," said General Crook.

Geronimo said, "You think I will live again on the hot flats of the Gila?"

"It was not I who sent you there," said General Crook. "Choose your home. There are the White Mountains."

A mighty yearning stirred in Geronimo's heart. He was homesick for Arizona, and the White Mountains.

"What else do you ask?" Geronimo inquired.

General Crook said, "Your promise to live in peace."

"Who promises me that the white man will also keep the peace?" Geronimo asked.

"I do," said General Crook. "And have you known me to lie?"

"I have never known Chief Gray Wolf to speak falsely," Geronimo admitted. "And I see no treachery here."

Humor lighted General Crook's eyes. "How many of your warriors surround us, Geronimo?"

"Do you think I came in fear?" Geronimo asked angrily.

"I did not say that," said General Crook. "I asked how many of your warriors surround us."

"Some," Geronimo admitted. "But they are to shoot only if you start a battle."

"See for yourself that we want no battle," General Crook said. "Will you come back to live on the Apache reservation if you may choose your home in the White Mountains?"

"I will if I may do that," Geronimo said.

"Will you live in peace?"

Geronimo promised, "I will live in peace."

"When will you come?" General Crook asked.

"When I am ready."

Geronimo turned on his heel and strode away.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

_The Discontented_

A mile and a half from his farm on Turkey Creek, in Arizona's White Mountains, Geronimo skulked in a thicket and looked sourly at a flock of wild turkeys. They were so many that they seemed a living carpet over the five-acre clearing in which they were catching gra.s.shoppers. But they held no charm for Geronimo. Who besides white men would eat a bird that ate snakes?

White men also ate the trout that swarmed in White Mountain streams, and trout were akin to snakes. Geronimo grimaced. He had had enough, and more than enough, of white men and their ways.

A lark called three times. The turkeys skulked away. They knew that it was not a lark calling, but a man imitating a lark. A moment later Naiche slipped into the thicket where Geronimo hid.

Naiche said, "No one saw me."

"It is well," said Geronimo. "Chato suspects that we are again on the point of fleeing to Mexico. He will be happy to inform the soldiers if he can discover our plans."

Naiche said, "Chato suspects everything since he turned from his own people to the white men. In his own opinion, Chato is a very great man.

He told me himself that Chief Gray Wolf never would have come to the Sierra Madres if he, Chato, had not gone raiding into Arizona. He said the settlers of Arizona had decided that the Apaches would never dare leave Mexico. His raid taught them otherwise, and so Chief Gray Wolf came."

"For once, Chato spoke the truth," Geronimo said.

Without announcing himself, old Nana came so silently that neither Geronimo nor Naiche knew he was coming until he was almost upon them.

Mangas and Chihuahua arrived, and the leaders who had planned this second outbreak were gathered.

Geronimo spoke. "When I met Chief Gray Wolf in Mexico, I told him that I would return to Arizona if I might live as an Apache should. But before I could come, I needed time. Not wis.h.i.+ng to return to Arizona a poor man, I had to steal enough cattle to make me rich. My warriors and I took three hundred and fifty cattle from the Mexicans. They were honorably stolen. We brought them to Arizona when we came. But when we arrived at Fort Apache, our cattle were taken from us."

[Ill.u.s.tration]

The chiefs growled like angry wolves. Geronimo continued:

"That was not what Chief Gray Wolf promised, but where is he? Where are Captain Crawford and Lieutenant Gatewood? Where are any white men we may trust? They brought us here and over us set strangers like Lieutenant Davis, who knows nothing about Apaches and cares less."

"I told Mickey Free to tell the fat white chief, Lieutenant Davis, that I had killed men before he was born!" old Nana snarled. "He cannot tell me what to do!"

Chihuahua said angrily, "He and others do tell us! We must not do this, we must not do that! But we must scratch the ground with those foolish plows they gave us, and try to grow corn when it is much easier to steal it! I promised to keep peace with white men! I never promised not to fight with and raid Papagoes and Navajos!"

"None of us promised anything except that we would live on the reservation and bother no white men," Geronimo said. "It is true that we live in the White Mountains rather than on the flats of the Gila, but how do we live? It is still better to be free and at war in Mexico than to be at peace and live like the stupid sheep which Navajo herders chase."

"Right!" Nana agreed. "It is better to die in battle than to live as a slave! Before we go, I think that I will pick a fight with the fat white chief."

"Have men, not boys, beside you if you do," Geronimo advised.

"Lieutenant Davis is a warrior. How many are we?"

Naiche said, "In all, we are thirty-five men, eight boys who know how to shoot, and a hundred and one women and children. We might have had as many more as we cared to take with us if we had been able to provide arms for them. As it is, three of the boys who can shoot must carry bows and arrows since we were unable to get enough rifles."

"It is as well," Geronimo said. "The smaller the party, the faster we may travel. We know that the Apache scouts and the white soldiers will stop us if they can. And I feel that Lieutenant Davis is suspicious."

Naiche said, "I can go to him and pick a fight. He would kill me, or I would kill him. If I killed him, he could not stop us."

"Since we are not sure he knows anything, this is not the time to fight him," Geronimo said. "He has not tried to stop us. When we are gone, he cannot stop us."

"He can send a message by the wire that talks, the telegraph," said Nana. "He can tell the soldiers at Fort Thomas to stop us, and we shall have to fight them when we meet."