Having plenty of reasons
for hurrying back to their stronghold, and having plenty of lawlessness to
account for, when they realized that they were being followed by nine white
men who had four packed horses with them to provide for their needs on a long
journey, it was no more than natural that the Indians should take it for
granted that they were being pursued, and that if they were caught they would
be taken back to town and shut up in that evil place which the white men
called their jail.
When it was known that the nine men who followed had twice recovered the trail
after sheep and cattle had trampled it out, the renegades became sufficiently
alarmed to call upon their tribesmen for help. And that was perfectly natural
and sensible from their point of view.
Now, the Navajos are peaceable enough if you leave them strictly alone and do
not come snooping upon their reservation trying to arrest somebody. But they
don't like jails, and if you persist in trailing their lawbreakers you are
going to have trouble on your hands. The Happy Family, with Luck and
Applehead, had no intention whatever of molesting the Navajos; but the Navajos
did not know that, and they acted according to their lights and their ideas of
honorable warfare.
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