As the first day wore on, Cochise again surprised Sladen by inviting him to take  a ride up into the Dragoon heights to check on one of the outposts.  There followed a most daring ride along rocky, indistinct trails and around high cliffs until the two men reached a small party of six to eight Apaches, commanded by Cochise's sister.  Sladen was able to see firsthand how Cochise's lookouts could keep a close eye on vast tracts of land from their lofty perch.  The visit was just another signal to Sladen that these people had lives and concerns of their own.  He was able to see the difficulty of their situation, and that they had to be on guard every minute for sudden attacks from primarily the soldiers at Fort Bowie, but also from incursions by Mexicans from the south.  The Apaches were afraid to light fires day or night, and had learned to live like refugees in their own land.

     Shortly after returning from the outpost (which was most likely atop present day Mount Glenn), Jeffords and Sladen were invited to join Cochise "behind the big rock" in Cochise's domicile, where they shared a small meal prepared by Cochise's wife.  Due to the fact that they always kept their fires very small so as to avoid giving away their position, it is likely (in my opinion) that Dos-Teh-Seh's small fire was in the firepit that can now be seen in a boulder cave behind and at the foot of the big rock.  I hasten to emphasize that this is opinion only -- but it would make complete sense, judging from Sladen's description of the location of the meal that afternoon.

      Sladen describes a very meager but tasty meal, and makes mention of an incident that was dramatized, with some significant changes, in the movie, "Broken Arrow". (In the movie this incident happens to General Howard, in part because Sladen was unceremoniously omitted entirely from the plot by Elliott Arnold, who was not only the author of the book on which the movie was based, but the writer of the screenplay for the movie as well.  Sladen fared better in the book, as his part in history was properly preserved.)  As the three men began eating, Cochise said something to Jeffords in Spanish.  Jeffords made a short comment more or less under his breath, and they began sharing a dish featuring some kind of meat that Sladen did not recognize.  After the meal, Jeffords took him aside and revealed what Cochise had asked him before they ate. 
 

     The question of Sladen's memory in giving these accounts once again comes to bear with this speicific incident.  In his journal entries, he wrote that the meal involving the above incident occured the morning after he had been taken to the outpost camp . . . but in the letter to Crane, he has it taking place in the moments after he had returned with Cochise from that visit.  This is of course a minor discrepancy, but it adds weight to the notion that the narrative Sladen imparted to Crane via letters, so many years after the fact, though incredibly important and virtually priceless, do contain some errors in recollection (i.e. the melding of two different boulders into one in his description of Cochise's main camp).

     Cochise continued to impress Sladen in surprising ways as time passed.  He proved to be an attentive host, no better demonstrated than in the incident Sladen describes next, involving an incompetent warrior.