"I sent for Alcashay to come in immediately, which he did, and I
demanded that he trail the man and deliver him up to me, or I would take
my scout corps, go to his camp, and arrest all suspicious characters. He
stoutly denied that the man was in his camp, promised to do as I
directed, and, to further allay any suspicions, he asked for my picked
trailers to help run the trail. With this body of men he proceeded on
the track, and they found that it ran right around his camp, then turned
sharply to the east, ran within two hundred yards of a stage-ranch,
thence into some rough mountain country, where it twisted and turned for
forty miles. At this point they found the first camp the man had made.
He had tied the girl to a tree by the feet, which permitted her to sleep
on her back; the mare had been killed, some steaks taken out, and some
meat 'jerked.' From thence on they could find no trail which they could
follow. At long intervals they found his moccasin mark between rocks,
but after circling for miles they gave it up. In this camp they found
and brought to me a fire-stick--the first and only one I had ever
seen--and they told me that the fire-stick had not been used by Apaches
for many years. There were only a few old men in my camp who were
familiar with its use, though one managed to light his cigarette with
it. They reasoned from this that the man was a bronco Indian who had
been so long 'out' that he could not procure matches, and also that he
was a much wilder one than any of the Indians then known to be outlawed.

"In about a week there was another Indian girl stolen from one of my
hay-camps, and many scouts thought it was the same Indian, who they
decided was one of the well-known outlaws; but older and better men did
not agree with them; so there the matter rested for some months.

"In the spring the first missing girl rode into Fort Apache on a fine
horse, which was loaded down with buckskins and other Indian finery. Two