On the Trail of Geronimo — page 85: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

ON THE TRAIL OF GERONIMO. V7 for no white man could understand better than they the worth of the yellow stuff for which hundreds are always eager to risk their lives. He had a difficult task to tell a plausible story without revealing the important truth. “¢ How fall ober rocks?” continued his questioner. Dick suspecting from his manner that he discredited the story. Now if he wished to keep his all important secret, it was unsafe to say that the stage had taken that fatal plunge—that no passengers were injured, and that he saved himself by catching fast to a projecting rock and making his way to the bottom of the gorge. Though it was strictly true, the statement itself was such an improbable one that many of his own race would discredit 1t. Since the scene of the hold-up was not very distant, it would seem also that the Apaches ought to have heard the reports of the guns, and under- stood what was going on. One of the cardinal principles of the West Pointer is to tell the truth at all times; but it is a principle of war also to use your utmost skill to deceive the enemy as to your intentions. All these thoughts passed through the mind of COmmicloo© So!