"We shall be glad enough to have you with us," Dave said, "and though
the work will be toilsome and hard, there is nothing in it that two
active young chaps like you need be afraid of. It is just the
Injuns--they are the worst kind, and have always set themselves against
gold-seekers. That is natural enough, for they know that if gold mines
were once opened in their country, the whites would pour in, and they
would soon be wiped out. Anyhow, everyone who goes prospecting in that
part of Arizona knows well enough that he takes his life in his hands.

"All along the country by the Gila River is the stronghold of the
Apaches, the terror of Northern Mexico. Many parties of miners have set
out, but very few have ever come back again; but those that have tell of
gold richer by a hundred times than ever was seen in California, and
have brought with them sacks of nuggets to prove it. These are men who
have had the luck to get in and out without ever having been seen by the
Injuns; the large parties have never succeeded. So you see, young
fellows, the odds are strongly agin you. Still, if you like to go with
us, you are welcome; but if the time comes when the redskins have got us
shut up in some place we can never get out of alive, remember that you
are there on your own choice, and that we had no hand in getting you
into the scrape."

"We will never blame you, whatever comes of it, Dave. If the risk is not
too great for you and your comrades, it is not too great for us. There
is nothing in the world we should like so much as such an adventure."

"Well, that is settled then, and no more words about it. We shall be
glad to have two more with us, and we intended to go alone only because
it is not everyone that can be trusted."