afraid they 'd catch him. He did n't seem to think of anything but
Apaches, and he had n't been with us very long till the boys did n't
give him a chanst to think of anything else a-tall.

"We was makin' a round-up down below Separ then, and there was ten of
us and the chuck wagon when we made camp at night. Well, one night,
Pard Huff, he was scareder than ever, and the boys struck his gait
right off and kep' him a-runnin'. I did n't know they was goin' to
blaze him quite so bad or I 'd have done my best to stop the thing.
Well, and they would n't, either, if he had n't been the meanest sort
of a coward that ever laid awake nights. He asked each of us separate,
and then all of us in a bunch at supper, if there was any danger of
Apaches down there, and we-all told him there was, lots of it. One of
the boys said he 'd seen signs over toward Hatchet Mountain that very
day that sure meant Apaches, and another said he 'd heard that a little
ranch about forty mile away had lately been cleaned out by them and
everybody killed. Then we-all talked about it and agreed that they
might come on us any minute, that most likely they 'd attack us that
very night and that we ought to be ready for them.

"Well, sir, that Pard Huff, he never said another word. He just set
there with his eyes getting bigger and his face whiter every minute.
We kep' it up and told stories about the way them devils do--everything
we 'd ever heard of--how they hold you and pull out your tongue, or cut
off your ears, or run a stake through you and pin you to the ground, or
smash your face to a jelly with a rock, or burn you alive, till Pard
Huff did n't know which end he was a-standin' on a-tall.

"We got out our blankets and turned in, but just kep' a-talkin' about
the Apaches till that Pard Huff, he was shakin' as if he had a fit.