CHAPTER VI
Diamond Dick
ON THE trip, with money to spare in the exchequer, Stone broached the suggestion of securing a guide, acquainted, not only with the country through which they had to travel, but with the customs and temper of the Indians. Since the triple agreement was signed, Healy had become more communicative as to their destination, so far as he could lead them. They got a map of Arizona and studied it out together. From the terminal of the branch railroad that served Globe and the surrounding settlements of that mining district they were to work north through the Apache Mountains and debouch upon the desert that lies between the streams of Cherry and Tonto creeks, known generally as the Tonto Basin.
To the right and east of their route, beyond Cherry Creek, ran the intangible line of the White Mountain Indian Reservation where savage tribes brooded and bided their time for outbreaks, always sternly put down but ever foremost in the minds of the savages both as amusement and revenge against the white man, who had narrowed their hunting grounds and circumscribed their pleasures. The line vanished northward in the breakdown of the great Mogollon
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