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TALKABOUT
Alex Kelly’s internationally renowned TALKABOUT books are a series of practical

workbooks designed to develop the self-awareness, self-esteem, and social skills
of people with special needs. This core manual in the TALKABOUT series provides
fully adaptable session plans, activities, and games to focus on four key areas of
social skills: Body Language, The Way We Talk, Conversations, and Assertiveness.
Now in its second edition, this revised version of the TALKABOUT manual has
been edited for US professionals, with a foreword by Nancy Tarshis and Debbie
Meringolo (Altogether Social LLC, New York).
Contents includes:
• A social skills assessment and intervention planning tool to help identify the
individual needs of each client or group
• Over 60 structured activities, with a focus on body language, paralinguistic
features, conversation, and assertiveness
• 25 group cohesion activities to help facilitate productive group sessions
Suitable for speech and language pathologists, teachers, social workers, child
psychologists, and school counselors, the photocopiable resources within this
volume are suitable for use with children, adolescents, and adults in small
groups or individually.
Alex Kelly is a speech-language pathologist who specializes in working with

people with social skills and relationship skills difficulties. She currently runs
her own business providing social skills training and consults to schools and
organizations across the UK and overseas.
Nancy Tarshis, a speech-language pathologist and special educator with

extensive experience working with children and their parents, is the Director
of Early Childhood Programming at The Quad Preparatory School, which
is dedicated to twice exceptional children, Grades K–12. For 27 years, she
was a member of the professional team at the Children’s Evaluation and
Rehabilitation Center (CERC) at Albert Einstein College of Medicine, serving as
Supervisor of Speech and Language Services for 21 of them. In that capacity,
she trained more than 400 SLPs currently practicing throughout the nation. As
Emeritus at CERC, she participates in ongoing research and lectures to pediatric
fellows, medical residents, and psychology interns. In addition, she serves as
adjunct clinical instructor at New York University, Teachers College – Columbia
University, and Hunter and Lehman Colleges of City University of New York, and
consults on social emotional learning to a variety of public and private schools.
Nancy is deeply experienced in a wide variety of treatment methodologies,
including Social Thinking. Nancy’s private clinical work includes Altogether
Social, a social cognitive practice she co-founded with Debbie Meringolo, that
serves clients aged 14 months through 22 years. Altogether Social provides
individual and group sessions, training for parents and professionals, and
school consultations. Nancy is a member of the professional advisory boards
of New York Zero to Three and Apraxia Kids (formerly the Childhood Apraxia of
Speech Association of North America).
Debbie Meringolo, a special educator, clinician, and developmental specialist,

is the Director of Early Childhood Programming at The Quad Preparatory School,
a school for twice exceptional children, Grades K–12. She assumed this role in
July 2018, after a 27-year history as the Associate Director of the Infant/Toddler
Team and RELATE program at the Rose F. Kennedy Center Children’s Evaluation
and Rehabilitation Center of Monteﬁore. Prior to her current role at Quad
Prep, Debbie served as a consultant, bringing social cognitive programming
to the school, developing the social emotional learning program, and training
staff members. Debbie has a long history working in schools as a reading
specialist, supervisor, and program developer in the New York City Department
of Education for many years. She also runs a part-time private practice,
Altogether Social, along with Nancy Tarshis, for children aged 14 months
through adulthood. They provide individual and group sessions, consult
to public and private schools, and training for parents and professionals. Debbie
is an enthusiastic speaker who enjoys sharing her own clinical experiences
with audiences. She has been speaking about social cognitive development,
preschool and school-age play skill development, assessment and intervention,
diagnosis and treatment of individuals with social learning challenges, and
developing social programming across the age range throughout the country.
TALKABOUT
TALKABOUT
Contents Page
Contents Page
TALKABOUT
Each practical workbook in this bestselling series provides a clear program of activities
designed to improve self-awareness, self-esteem, and social skills.
“All in all, Alex, what a wonderful world for kids it would be if your social skills programs
were in all schools across the continents”– Catherine Varapodio Longley, Parent,
Melbourne, 2013.
“I feel very lucky to work in a school where our pupils get the opportunity to utilise
Talkabout resources and to see the benefit that this has made to them and their peers.
You are making a difference!” – Nicole Thomas, Teacher, 2017
TALKABOUT: A Social Communication Skills Package (Second Edition)

Alex Kelly
Edited and with a Foreword by Nancy Tarshis and Debbie Meringolo
PB: 978-1-138-36942-9
EBK: 978-0-429-42725-1
TALKABOUT for CHILDREN 1: Developing Self-Awareness and Self-Esteem (Second Edition)

Alex Kelly
PB: 978-1-138-36981-8
EBK: 978-0-429-42722-0
TALKABOUT for CHILDREN 2: Developing Social Skills (Second Edition)

Alex Kelly
PB: 978-1-138-36982-5
EBK: 978-0-429-42721-3
TALKABOUT for CHILDREN 3: Developing Friendship Skills (Second Edition)

Alex Kelly
PB: 978-1-138-36983-2
EBK: 978-0-429-42719-0
TALKABOUT for TEENAGERS: Developing Social and Communication Skills

Alex Kelly
Edited by Lena Taeger
PB: 978-1-911186-03-8
EBK: 978-1-315-17368-9
TALKABOUT
.S ED
U I
T
SECON
•
ION
EDITIO D
ION
N
•
T
U
I
ED .S
A SOCIAL
COMMUNICATION
SKILLS PACKAGE
ALEX KELLY
Edited and with a Foreword by

Nancy Tarshis and Debbie Meringolo
07.04
US edition published 2020
by Routledge
52 Vanderbilt Avenue, New York, NY 10017
and by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2020 Alex Kelly
The right of Alex Kelly to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with sections 77 and 78
of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. The purchase of this copyright material confers the right on the purchasing institution to photocopy
pages which bear the photocopy icon and copyright line at the bottom of the page. No other part of this publication may be
reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying,
recording or otherwise, without prior permission in writing from the publisher.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for
identification and explanation without intent to infringe.
First UK edition published by Speechmark 2007

Second UK edition published by Routledge 2016
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

A catalog record for this book has been requested
ISBN: 978-1-138-36942-9 (pbk)

ISBN: 978-0-429-42725-1 (ebk)
Typeset in ITC Flora

by Apex CoVantage, LLC
Visit the companion website: www.routledge.com/cw/kelly

TALKABOUT
Contents Page
Forewordix
Acknowledgementsx
About the author x
Preface to the second edition xi
Introduction
This section includes a brief introduction to 1
the book and the theory behind TALKABOUT.
It also includes some practical suggestions
for intervention, including setting up and
running a group.
Assessment
This section includes an assessment of 13
self-awareness and self-esteem, an assessment
of social skills, and a planning sheet for
intervention.
Level 1 TALKABOUT The aim of the topics in this section is to improve 27

Body Language body language. This includes activities to develop
skills in: eye contact, facial expression, gesture,
distance, touch, fidgeting, posture, and personal
appearance.
Level 2 TALKABOUT The aim of this topic is to improve the way we talk 127
The Way We Talk (paralinguistic skills). This includes activities to
develop skills in: volume, rate, clarity, intonation,
and fluency.
Conversations conversational skills. This includes activities to
develop skills in: listening, starting a conversation,
taking turns, asking questions, answering
questions, being relevant, repairing, and ending
a conversation.
Assertiveness assertiveness skills. This includes activities to
develop skills in: expressing feelings, standing
up for yourself, making suggestions, refusing,
disagreeing, complaining, apologizing, and
requesting explanations.
vii
TALKABOUT
Group cohesion This section contains a few suggestions for group 315
games cohesion games to play at the start or the end
of sessions.
Record forms This section contains various forms which can be 317
used for session planning and evaluation.
References 322
Index This lists the topics and the associated activities. 323
viii
TALKABOUT
Foreword
It is an absolute pleasure to write the foreword for this newest edition in the TALKABOUT©
series, TALKABOUT, Second Edition©. As a speech pathologist and a special educator who
have worked in the field of child development and social cognition for most of our careers
we are well aware that teaching social skills is no easy task.
This next installment of a proven social communication skills curriculum series does
not disappoint the reader in anyway! It is comprised of straightforward writing with
clear protocols for assessment and then practical lessons ready for implementation.
This is a wonderful resource for busy teachers and therapists. With already written
worksheets and clearly designed lesson plans, those who would like to teach a social
skills approach to students of all ages in special programs and to young adults with
intellectual ability have what they need to get up and running.
As with the other TALKABOUT© curriculums it starts with how to assess your students to
make a determination about individual needs, starting points and grouping – three key
areas leading to greater success for participants. There are clear guidelines and materials
to guide professionals through this process. In addition to the adult assessment materials
it contains a self-assessment component, which is critical to the success of programs with
students who are capable of looking at their own abilities.
Once the assessment is complete, the curriculum addresses forming groups and then
key areas for treatment including: body language, the way we talk, conversations, and
assertiveness; each a key area of need for individuals with social difficulty. In all of
these content areas the curriculum provides well thought out and worded worksheets,
engaging activities, role plays, and mini assessments as well as follow up materials. There
are many social skills programs and manuals for teaching social skills on the market and
for the right students this approach makes good sense. The TALKABOUT© series stands out
as a program that is thoughtful and well organized. This is the must-have manual for
clinicians and teachers wanting to teach social skills.
Nancy Tarshis and Debbie Meringolo
ix
TALKABOUT TALKABOUT
Acknowledgements
Preface to the second edition
In the past 30
TALKABOUT wasyears
firstI published
have had 20 theyears
pleasure
ago of
in working
1996 andinthis
a job and speciality
second edition hasthat I love
been on my list
and so many
of things to do people have five
for about helped
years.meMy along the way.
interest I am grateful
and passion to thewith
in working NHSpeople
and allwith
my social
NHS
skillscolleagues
difficulties for the 23
started asyears
soon ofas experience
I qualified ofin working for such
the mid-1980s andanthe
amazing organization.
first edition of TALKABOUT
Iwas
certainly
writtenwould not bea the
following person
clinical or of
study therapist I am which
social skills, today Iwithout those
completed years. Now
between 1991 Iand
am 1995.
grateful
It was the to first
the people who package
social skills believe enough
to give in me, toa come
people and to
hierarchy work
workforthrough
me … and andthere are
included
now
basic19worksheets
of us. for all areas and skills that you would cover when working with someone.
So thank you to my lovely staff team – particularly to Naomi Pearson and Rebecca Elwell, who
Since then, my work in this field has developed and increased and, along with this, so have
manage the teams so well, and to Amy Green, who helps me with all the social skills work. Amy
the TALKABOUT products. Each TALKABOUT book is now aimed at a specific client group – for
– yet again, I have to thank you for your support in writing a book! I wouldn’t want to have
example, with secondary mainstream pupils, you can use the TALKABOUT for TEENAGERS book
written it without you. And thank you to the rest of the team: to Grace Anstey, Jo Bartholomew,
and for primary children, the TALKABOUT for CHILDREN series. Each book has become more
Amy Bigwood, Joley Blunden, Sophie Chamberlain, Lisa Davidson, Marnie Daws, Emily Dennis,
activity-based
Nevin Gouda, AmywithKeable,
suggestions
Chris for games and
McLoughlin, activities
Zara Owens,for eachSmith,
Helen topic. and
TheyHayley
are also more
Tutton.
Iofbelieve
a complete
we are intervention
truly makingpackage for teachers
a difference and therapists
in everything we do andtoIuse,
want including
to thankayou
scheme
all for
of work for teachers to follow throughout
your enthusiasm, dedication, and hard work. an academic year.
The book
This other isdevelopment
dedicated tocame in 2004
the men when
in my life.ITo
changed the hierarchy
my children Ed, Pete, to include
and George self-esteem
– I am so and
friendship
proud of youskills.
all. So
Andthetonewer TALKABOUT
my husband (andbooks address
business not only
partner) Brianself-awareness
Sains – I love and
you. social skills
but also self-esteem and friendship skills.
Alex Kelly
(October 2015)
So the time has come to update the original book to include more activities, more drawings
and more suggestions, which are now based on my 30 years of experience of working in this
area. IAbout the author
have also linked it with the other resources that are available so that you can use it as
successfully as possible.
Alex Kelly is a speech and language therapist with 30 years of experience working with both
I hope you
children andlike the new
adults withbook but, more importantly,
an intellectual I hope disability),
disability (learning you find it useful.
and specializing in
working with people who have difficulties with social skills. She runs her own business
(Alex
Alex Kelly
Kelly Ltd) with her husband Brian Sains and is the author of several books and
resources,
August 2015including the best-selling TALKABOUT series.
Alex Kelly Ltd, based in Hampshire, England, provides training and consultancy work to schools
and organizations
Please in socialme
feel free to contact skills
for around the UK andorabroad.
more information Theyour
help with company
social also
skillsprovides
work. speech
and language therapy in schools in and around Hampshire. Finally, there is a day service for
My website is www.alexkelly.biz
adults called “Speaking Space”
Speaking Space which
which aims
aims toto support
support people
people with
with social
social and
and communication
communication
skills difficulties through group work.
You can contact Alex through her website: www.alexkelly.biz
x
TALKABOUT TALKABOUT
Acknowledgements
Preface to the second edition
In the past 30
TALKABOUT wasyears
first Ipublished
have had 20theyears
pleasure of 1996
ago in workingandinthis
a job and edition
second speciality
hasthat I love
been on my list
and so many
of things to dopeople havefive
for about helped meMy
years. along the and
interest way.passion
I am grateful to thewith
in working NHSpeople
and all mysocial
with
NHS
skills colleagues
difficulties for the 23
started as years of experience
soon as I qualified inof the
working for such
mid-1980s andanthe
amazing organization.
first edition of TALKABOUT
Iwas
certainly
writtenwould not be
following the person
a clinical studyor of
therapist I amwhich
social skills, today Iwithout those
completed years. 1991
between Now Iand
am 1995.
grateful
It was the tofirst
the social
peopleskills
whopackage
believe enough
to give in me, to
people come andto
a hierarchy work
workforthrough
me … and and there are
included
now
basic19 of us.
worksheets for all areas and skills that you would cover when working with someone.
So thank you to my lovely staff team – particularly to Naomi Pearson and Rebecca Elwell, who
Since then, my work in this field has developed and increased and, along with this, so have
the TALKABOUT products. Each TALKABOUT book is now aimed at a specific client group – for
example, with secondary mainstream pupils, you can use the TALKABOUT for TEENAGERS book
written it without you. And thank you to the rest of the team: to Grace Anstey, Jo Bartholomew,
and for primary children, the TALKABOUT for CHILDREN series. Each book has become more
Amy Bigwood, Joley Blunden, Sophie Chamberlain, Lisa Davidson, Marnie Daws, Emily Dennis,
activity-based
Nevin Gouda, Amywith Keable,
suggestions
Chrisfor games and
McLoughlin, activities
Zara Owens,forHelen
eachSmith,
topic. They are alsoTutton.
and Hayley more
Iofbelieve
a complete
we areintervention
truly making package for teachers
a difference and therapists
in everything we do andto Iuse,
wantincluding
to thankayou
scheme
all for
of work for teachers to follow throughout
your enthusiasm, dedication, and hard work. an academic year.
The other
This development
book is dedicated tocame in 2004
the men when
in my life.I To
changed the hierarchy
my children Ed, Pete,to include
and Georgeself-esteem
– I am soand
friendship
proud skills.
of you all.So thetonewer
And TALKABOUT
my husband (andbooks address
business not only
partner) self-awareness
Brian Sains – I love and
you.social skills
but also self-esteem and friendship skills.
Alex Kelly
(October 2015)
So the time has come to update the original book to include more activities, more drawings
and more suggestions, which are now based on my 30 years of experience of working in this
area. I About the itauthor
have also linked with the other resources that are available so that you can use it as
successfully as possible.
I hope you
children andlikeadults
the new
withbook but, more importantly,
an intellectual I hope you
disability (learning find it useful.
disability), and specializing in
(Alex Kelly Ltd) with her husband Brian Sains and is the author of several books and
Alex Kelly
resources,
August 2015 including the best-selling TALKABOUT series.
and
Pleaseorganizations in socialme
feel free to contact skills
for around the UK andorabroad.
more information Theyour
help with company also provides
social skills work. speech
and language therapy in schools in and around Hampshire. Finally, there is a day service for
My website is www.alexkelly.biz
adults called Speaking Space which aims to support people with social and communication
skills difficulties through group work.
xi
TALKABOUT Introduction
TALKABOUT
Introduction
Acknowledgements
Overview
In the past 30 years I have had the pleasure of working in a job and speciality that I love
and so many people have helped me along the way. I am grateful to the NHS and all my
TALKABOUT is a practical
NHS colleagues for the 23resource
years of that has been
experience designedfortosuch
of working help an
therapists
amazingand teaching staff
organization.
to teach social
I certainly wouldskills
notinbea the
more structured
person way, giving
or therapist ideas on
I am today the process
without of intervention
those years. Now I amwith
lots of activities
grateful and worksheets
to the people to enough
who believe use at every stage.
in me, It is aimed
to come at working
and work for me …with
andpeople
there in
are
groups but
now 19 of us. it can also be adapted for working on a one-to-one basis.
The book you

So thank is divided
to my into the
lovely following
staff team –sections.
particularly to Naomi Pearson and Rebecca Elwell, who
Assessment
written
This it without
section you.
includes And
two thank you a
assessments: toquick
the rest of the team:
assessment to Grace Anstey,
of someone’s Jo Bartholomew,
self-awareness and
aAmy Bigwood,
social Joley Blunden,
skills assessment. FromSophie Chamberlain,
here you can decideLisa Davidson,
where to startMarnie Daws, EmilyIfDennis,
your intervention. you
Nevin Gouda,
decide that theAmy Keable,
person needsChris McLoughlin,and
self-awareness Zaraself-esteem
Owens, Helen
work,Smith, andneed
you will Hayley Tutton.
to use the book
ITALKABOUT
believe we forareADULTS:
truly making a difference in everything we do and I want to thank you
Developing Self-Awareness and Self-Esteem. If the person needs social all forskills
your enthusiasm, dedication, and hard work.
work, you can choose which of the four levels of this book to start at.
This book is dedicated to the men in my life. To my children Ed, Pete, and George – I am so
Level 1 Body Language
proud of you all. And to my husband (and business partner) Brian Sains – I love you.
This level aims to improve body language and includes activities and worksheets on eight
topics: eye contact, facial expression, gesture, distance, touch, posture, fidgeting, and personal
Alex Kelly
appearance.
(October 2015)
Level 2 The Way We Talk

About the author
This level aims to improve paralinguistic skills and includes activities and worksheets on five
topics: volume, rate, clarity, intonation, and fluency.
children and adults with an intellectual disability (learning disability), and specializing in
Level 3 Conversations
This
(Alexlevel
Kellyaims
Ltd) to
withimprove conversational
her husband skillsand
Brian Sains andisincludes activities
the author and books
of several worksheets
and on eight
topics: listening,
resources, includingstarting a conversation,
the best-selling takingseries.
TALKABOUT turns, asking questions, answering questions,
relevance, repairing, and ending a conversation.
Level 4 Assertiveness
and organizations in social skills around the UK and abroad. The company also provides speech
This
and level aims to
language improve
therapy assertiveness
in schools in andskills
aroundand Hampshire.
includes activities
Finally,and worksheets
there on eight
is a day service for
adults called
topics: Speaking
expressing Space
feelings, which aims
standing up fortoyourself,
support making
people with social and
suggestions, communication
refusing, disagreeing,
skills difficulties
complaining, through group
apologizing, and work.
requesting explanations.
1
TALKABOUT Introduction
Forms and group cohesion ideas

At the end of the book there are several ideas and forms to help with planning and evaluating
your work, including some new group cohesion games and activities.
Who TALKABOUT is aimed at

TALKABOUT was originally developed and designed to be used with children and adults with
social skills difficulties and this has not changed. It has now been adapted to be fairly generic
in its usability but is most ideal for use in secondary special schools or ASD (autism spectrum
disorder) units or with adults.
The table below summarizes the TALKABOUT books and which ones to use with different ages
and client groups.
Summary of the TALKABOUT resources
Resource What it includes Age Particularly suited

range to ...
TALKABOUT An assessment wheel on a All Anyone
Assessment CD CD Rom
(2010)
TALKABOUT An assessment of social skills All Secondary-aged pupils

2nd edition Activities and worksheets for in special schools or
(2016) four areas of social skills: units
Body Language, The Way Adults with intellectual
We Talk, Conversations, disability or ASD
Assertiveness
TALKABOUT An assessment of self- 16 years Adults with intellectual

for ADULTS: awareness and self-esteem upwards disability or ASD
Developing Self- A year’s worth of activities Older secondary pupils
Awareness and and worksheets to develop in special schools or
Self-Esteem (2014) self-awareness and self- units
esteem
TALKABOUT for A screening tool for self- 10–25 Secondary-aged pupils

TEENAGERS esteem, social skills, and years in mainstream schools
(2009) friendship skills Young adults with high
Five modules on self-esteem, functioning ASD
social skills, and friendship
skills
2
TALKABOUT
Resource What it includes Age Particularly suited

range to ...
TALKABOUT for An assessment of self- 4–16 Primary-aged pupils in
CHILDREN 1: awareness and self-esteem years mainstream schools
Developing One year’s worth of activities Children with an
Self-Awareness and worksheets to develop intellectual disability
and Self-Esteem self-awareness and self- (all ages)
(2011a) esteem
TALKABOUT for An assessment of social skills 4–16 Primary-aged pupils in

CHILDREN 2: Two years’ worth of years mainstream schools
Developing Social activities and worksheets Children with an
Skills (2011b) to develop body language, intellectual disability
conversations, and (all ages)
assertiveness
TALKABOUT for One year’s worth of activities 4–16 Primary-aged pupils in

CHILDREN 3: and worksheets to develop years mainstream schools
Friendship Skills friendship skills Children with an
(2013) intellectual disability
(all ages)
TALKABOUT Cards Two sets of cards for group All Anyone

(2011d) cohesion activities and self-
awareness games
TALKABOUT DVD Video clips of inappropriate 7 years Anyone except very

(2006) and appropriate social skills upwards young children
Includes all of the skills
worked on in TALKABOUT
TALKABOUT A set of 16 posters illustrating All Anyone

Posters the key steps to success for
(2011c) social skills
TALKABOUT Board A board game for children 7 years Anyone

Game (2011) to play at different levels, upwards
including self-esteem, body
language, assertiveness, etc
TALKABOUT An assessment of self-esteem 18 years Older children and

Relationships and relationship skills upwards adults with a mild to
(2004) Sections on developing moderate intellectual
self-esteem and developing disability
relationships
3
TALKABOUT
The theory behind TALKABOUT

TALKABOUT was first developed in the early 1990s when I was working as a speech and language
therapist in London, UK. I was particularly interested in social skills but was frustrated by two
aspects of my work as a therapist. First, there was nothing in the literature to guide me on
where to start intervention following assessment; and second, my experience showed me that
I was not always successful in what I was trying to teach and I could not always predict which
children were going to improve and which were not. I set about solving these two problems
over a period of four years.
I started my investigations at a college of further education where I was working with

60 students who had a mild to moderate intellectual disability. We assessed all of the young
people I was working with using an adapted social skills assessment from the Personal
Communication Plan by Alex Hitchings and Robert Spence – now published in Kelly (2000).
The students were involved in this assessment which gave us some insight into their own
awareness of their difficulties. From these initial results, we grouped students into their main
area of need: body language, conversational skills, and assertiveness. We evaluated success
through retesting on the original assessment and also compared students with weak and good
awareness of their needs.
The results were fascinating. They showed that the students who had been working on their
conversational skills progressed more if they had good existing non-verbal skills (ie body
language), and students who had been working on their assertiveness progressed significantly
more if they had good existing non-verbal and verbal skills. In addition, we found that students
who had weak self- and other awareness struggled with all aspects of the work. From this, we
established a hierarchy which forms the basis of the TALKABOUT resources.
Over the next four years, we piloted this program using different client groups and a group
of willing therapists from throughout the UK. We all found consistently that the success of
intervention increased if non-verbal behaviors were taught before verbal behaviors, and if
assertiveness was taught last (Kelly, 1996).
This original hierarchy then formed the basis of the first TALKABOUT book (Kelly, 1996) but it has
been adapted over the years to include self-esteem and friendship skills. The hierarchy now
looks as follows.
4
TALKABOUT
Self-awareness and self-esteem
Non-verbal skills – Body language

HIERARCHY
– The way we talk
Verbal skills – Conversational skills
Friendship skills
Assertiveness skills
Hierarchy of social skills
So, in planning intervention, we can use

ASSESSMENT
this planning tool:
1 Self-awareness and self-esteem
2 Social skills
PLAN INTERVENTION
2 Body Language
3 The way we talk
4 Conversational skills
5 Friendship skills
6 Assertiveness skills
Planning intervention tool
5
TALKABOUT
Using this hierarchical approach, teachers and therapists can start work with the person at a
level that is appropriate to that person’s needs. They can then progress up the levels to enable
the person to reach their full potential, ensuring that basic skills are taught before the more
complex ones. So a student who needs work on all areas of his social skills would start work
first on his body language skills and then would progress to working on his paralinguistic skills,
then his conversational skills, and, finally, his assertiveness skills.
If this student also had weak self-awareness and low self-esteem, he would need to work on this
before working on his social skills. And if a student also had difficulties with his friendship skills,
he would only work on developing these skills if he had good self-awareness and good non-
verbal and verbal skills.
Of course, success is not just about what you teach first; it is also down to how you teach it.
I regularly run training courses in assessing and teaching social skills throughout the UK, and
sometimes abroad, so the best way to feel confident about this is to join one of my courses.
For more information, please go to my website: www.alexkelly.biz
Meanwhile, here are a few of my top tips for making your intervention work.
Planning your intervention

I like to put any intervention into the following four-step plan before I start my group or
one-to-one sessions. This will help you to work out how best to work with someone on their
social skills difficulties.
Step 1: The behavior … what is it?

Make sure that you choose the right behavior or skill to work on first. So, having assessed
the person, you need to consider the hierarchy and the complexity of the skill you want to
work on with them. Ask yourself: are you setting up the person to succeed? Is the behavior
too complex?
Now consider whether the behavior has a function or a reason. Maybe the person is behaving
in this way because of an underlying problem that has not been addressed, eg a sensory need.
Or they may be getting something out of the behavior, for example people leave them alone
and they like this.
6
TALKABOUT
Finally, try to really describe what the person is doing – the more detailed you can describe
the behavior, the more likely you are to be able to help the person understand what they are
doing wrong. You may need to add how it might make other people feel or what they may
think to give them insight, although I would do this jointly with the person.
Step 2: The rules … what are they?

We need to help people to understand what they should be doing instead – what are the rules?
What should be happening? So many adults I have worked with have asked me why they were
never taught the rules as a child. Of course, before we can do that, we do need to know them
ourselves, so that is where I hope the TALKABOUT resources will help you out!
Step 3: The motivation … what is it?

Every person you work with will need to be motivated at some level to come to your group,
change their behavior, and become more socially skilled. Often the key to success is to work
out what the motivation is going to be for the person to want to change.
We cannot assume
assume that
that all
all people
peoplearearemotivated
motivatedby by‘being
“beingfriendly’
friendly” oror “friendly
‘friendly behavior”
behavior’ or or
“people
‘people will like me” or ‘mom
me’ or “momwillwill be
be pleased’.
pleased.”ItItmay
maybe bebetter
betterto
toreward
reward themthem with
with something:
something,
for example
example,an anactivity,
activity,aasmiley-face
smiley-facechart,
chartor
orjust
justsaying
saying“This
‘Thisisisthe
thepolite
politething
thingtotodo”
do’oror“This
‘This
is the grown-up thing to do’.do.”IfIfwe
wedon’t
don’tconsider
considerthethemotivation,
motivation,the theintervention
interventionmay mayfail.
fail.
Step 4: The strategy … which one is best?

There are many different ways of helping people to improve their social skills and usually the
best intervention is the one that includes a number of them. There are eight main ways in
which we can help someone�.
1 The environment – in the school or at home. It is essential that the environment backs
up what is being taught as much as possible. Think about getting all of the teaching staff
on board with what you are working on. Making sure that everyone is encouraging and
discouraging in the same way can go a long way to helping someone transfer those skills
out of a group and into their everyday life. This doesn’t mean I wouldn’t work with someone
if I can’t get the environment to back us up, but it may explain a slower progress. You may
see people beginning to get the behavior in certain situations but not all of them.
This is OK. It shows you that the person has the ability to get it right when the
environment is conducive.
2 Talk it through with them or use comic strip conversations. With many skills and
behaviors, it is very helpful to talk it through with the person or to draw it using stick
figures and speech bubbles. You will gain an insight into how they may describe what is
happening and why it happens, which will help with your intervention.
7
TALKABOUT
3 Social storyTM. Carol Gray developed this approach in the early 1990s and I often use stories
to help teach social skills. A social story gives someone insight into their difficulties and helps
them to know what they can do instead. It also contains perspective sentences about what
other people may be feeling or thinking which can be very useful for people with ASD.
4 A visual cue or schedule. It is important to remember that many people are helped by
working visually, so the worksheets and activities in this book will help, but people may
also be helped by a prompt card or a poster displayed in the classroom. At our Day Service,
“Speaking Space’,
‘Speaking Space,” in the UK, we use a lot
lot of
of “now
‘now and next”
next’ symbolized
symbolized strips
strips which
whichcan
canwork
work
well to cue people in to
to what
what isis expected
expected of
of them
them in
incertain
certainsituations.
situations.
5 A reward system. Rewards can help if the motivation is very tangible, for example stickers
to get a financial reward or do an activity, or a certificate of achievement. Other rewards
can include a special time with someone to talk about something specific, for example
20 minutes at the end of the day to talk to their mom about dinosaurs. Any reward needs to
work for the person, so you need to refer to their motivation.
6 Use of other media. Using DVDs and clips of cartoons or television programs, or even
video clips of you modelling behavior, can really help to teach social skills. Many people
find visual methods of learning much easier and showing a video will usually motivate most
people. I often use this method in groups as well as in one-to-one sessions. The TALKABOUT
DVD includes video clips of actors modelling inappropriate and appropriate behaviors for
all of the key skills covered in TALKABOUT (Kelly, 2006).
7 Role play and modelling. In this book I often suggest using role play and modelling to help
teach skills. Modelling is when the facilitators model a behavior, both inappropriate and
appropriate, and role play is when the group members practice the behavior themselves.
Here are a few important points to remember when modelling:

• Keep it short and simple.
• Model one behavior at a time.
• Start with bad behavior and end with good.
• Never use the group members to help you model behaviors.
“real”as
• Keep the situation as ‘real’ aspossible
possible––ititisisbetter
betterto
tomodel
modelaanormal
normalconversation
conversation
between two group facilitators than to pretend that one is a child, store owner or teacher.
• Ask the group what they thought was bad about the behavior. What should have
happened?
8
TALKABOUT
Here are a few important points to remember when role playing:

• The group members are asked to act a scenario or to practice a skill.
• It is a stressful experience for some people.
• Try a “getting into role’
‘getting into role”exercise
exercisesuch
suchas
asthe
themagic
magiccarpet
carpetor
ortwisting
twistinginto
intoaarole
rolelike
like
‘Superman’.
“Superman.”
• Remember to de-role, especially if the group members have played the part of
someone else.
• Consider using puppets.
8 Social skills group. This is my favorite way to teach social skills and the TALKABOUT
program should give you all the resources you need to run a successful social skills group.
The advantages of group work over one-to-one work are as follows.
• It is a more natural and comfortable environment in which to learn.
• We learn from each other.
• It is easier to problem solve, play games, and set up role plays.
• It gives the opportunity to try out new skills in a safe environment.
• There is an opportunity to transfer skills to other staff, improving the chance of
carry-over into the environment.
Setting up and running a TALKABOUT group

Group membership
It is important to match the group members in terms of both their needs and how well they
will do. A group is far more likely to gel and work well if the participants have similar needs,
are a similar age, and like each other. Group membership should also be closed, that is, you
should not allow new members to join halfway through because this will alter the group
dynamics. I like to work with peer groups (children from the same class or year) but it may be
more appropriate to choose children from several year groups and classes. If this is the case, I
try to have children who are no more than two years apart in age.
Group size
Groups work best if they are neither too small nor too big, preferably between four and eight
members. I usually aim for a group of six. You need the group to be small enough to make
sure that everyone contributes and feels part of the group and large enough to make activities
such as role plays and group discussions feasible and interesting. Even numbers are helpful if
sometimes you will ask them to work in pairs.
9
TALKABOUT
Group length
Each topic gives you a guideline for the number of sessions it will take to complete but it is
important to remember that change will not happen quickly. In terms of the session lengths, it
is important that you have enough time to get through your session plan (see the next section)
but not so much time that the group members get bored. I usually aim for about 40 minutes.
Group leaders
Groups run better with two leaders (facilitators), especially as there is often a need to
model behaviors, observe the group members, video interactions, and facilitate
group discussions.
Accommodation
You will need a room that is comfortable for the group members to learn in and where you are
not going to be interrupted. Don’t be tempted to agree to the corner of the hall or library as an
acceptable place to run your group – this will not help your group members to relax and talk
openly. In terms of the layout of chairs, I sometimes work around a table, depending on the
activity; however, it is usually helpful to start with the chairs in a circle for the group
cohesion activity.
Cohesiveness
A group that does not gel will not learn or have fun. Therefore, it is important to take time to
ensure that the group gels. The factors that help are:
• interpersonal attraction – people who like each other are more likely to gel
• people with similar needs
• activities that encourage everyone to take part and have fun
• arrange the chairs in a circle before the session starts
• ensure that everyone feels valued in the group
“say”
• ensure that everyone feels part of the group and has an equal ‘say’
• ask the group to set some rules
• start each session with a simple activity that is fun and stress-free
• finish each session with another activity that is fun and stress-free.
Format of the session

The format of the session will vary occasionally but there are some general guidelines which you
should follow.
10
TALKABOUT
1 Group cohesion activity

This is an essential part of the group. It brings the group together and helps them to focus
on the other group members and the purpose of the group. The activity should be simple,
stress-free, and involve everyone.
2 How are you feeling?

This should be done every session to ensure that the group members learn how to express
their feelings and for the facilitator to address any concerns. You will need to use a feelings
board from TALKABOUT for ADULTS (Kelly & Green, 2014) or make up your own version.
3 Main activity(ies)
This may include the facilitators modelling a new skill followed by role play by the group
members and feedback, and then replay where necessary. It is during this part of the
session that it is most important not to lose people’s attention by allowing an activity to go
on for too long, or one person to dominate the conversation.
4 Finishing activity
Each session should end with a group activity to bring the group members back together
again and to reduce anxiety if they have found any of the activities difficult. The activity
should therefore be fun, simple, and stress-free.
11
TALKABOUT
12
ASSESSMENT
Assessment of self-awareness and self-esteem

ASSESSMENT
Name ………………………………………………….. DOB .…………………….
Introduction
Address ……………………………………………….. Date …………………….
Use the questions below to help find out whether the person has good self-awareness and
Objectives To provide a baseline assessment.
self-esteem. You could use pictures and other forms of stimuli to elicit answers if appropriate.
To plan where to start intervention.
1 Tell me about a good friend
Why do you like them? What
Materials do they look like?
1 Self-awareness andWhat are they
self-esteem like? (Other
interview sheetawareness)
2 Social skills assessment sheet
3 Social skills assessment summary
4 Self-assessment rating scale
5 Planning intervention sheet
2 Why do you think your friend likes you?
(Qualities and self-esteem)
Timing The timing of the assessment will depend on how well you know
the person. If you don’t know them well, you may need to talk
to a few people and gain their opinions on their social skills
and on their self-awareness and self-esteem.
3 Tell me about you. What do you like doing?

Do you have a favorite hobby or activity? (Likes)
4 Is there anything you really don’t like doing?

(Dislikes)
(continued)
1315
ASSESSMENT
Activity Description
Self-awareness This initial interview will determine whether the person needs work
and self-esteem in this area before you start working on their social skills. This
interview assessment is taken from the TALKABOUT for ADULTS book (Kelly &
Green, 2014).
Social skills This is a full assessment of the person’s social skills.

assessment
Complete the assessment using a consensus of opinions from other
people who know the person well. You can involve the person in
the process if appropriate, ie if they can understand the activity
but I would usually involve the person in understanding their
strengths and needs at the intervention stage (ie when you have
already completed your initial assessment).
Transfer the assessment to the assessment summary wheel.

This assessment wheel is also available to buy on CD Rom
(Kelly & Sains, 2010).
Self-assessment This is an optional part of the assessment process but it can be

sheet used to gain information on how much insight the person has into
their communication needs. Support the person to complete the
self-assessment and score the results.
Planning Use the information from the 1:1 interview and social skill
intervention assessment to plan where to start using the hierarchy:

2 Body language
3 The way we talk
4 Conversational skills
5 Assertiveness
14
ASSESSMENT
Assessment of self-awareness and self-esteem

Name ………………………………………………….. DOB .…………………….
Address ……………………………………………….. Date …………………….

Use the questions below to help find out whether the person has good self-awareness and
self-esteem. You could use pictures and other forms of stimuli to elicit answers if appropriate.
1 Tell me about a good friend

Why do you like them? What do they look like? What are they like? (Other awareness)
2 Why do you think your friend likes you?

(Qualities and self-esteem)
3 Tell me about you. What do you like doing?

Do you have a favorite hobby or activity? (Likes)
4 Is there anything you really don’t like doing?

(Dislikes)
(continued)
15
ASSESSMENT
5 What do you think you are good at?

Can you think of something that you are good at? (Strengths and self-esteem)
6 Can you think of something that you find difficult?

Can you think of something that you are not so good at? (Needs and self-esteem)
7 How would you describe the way you look?

Can you tell me 3 things about the way you look? (Personal appearance and self-esteem)
8 What kind of person do you think you are?

Can you think of 3 words to describe what kind of person you are? (Qualities and self-esteem)
9 Can you think of one good thing about being you?

Is there something that makes you special or really happy? (Qualities and self-esteem)
10 Do you like talking to people?

Do you find it easy or difficult to talk to people? (Strengths and self-esteem)
16
ASSESSMENT
Summary
1 Able to tell you what they look like? Yes No

(Personal appearance)
2 Able to describe a friend or another person? Yes No

(Other awareness)
3 Able to say what they like and dislike? Yes No

(Likes, dislikes)
4 Able to give you two qualities about self? Yes No

(Strengths, needs, qualities)
5 Appears to have good self-esteem? Yes No

(Self-esteem)
Comments
Completed by …………………………………………………. Date ……………………..
17
ASSESSMENT
Social Skills Assessment

Name ……………………………………………………….. DOB ……………………..
Address …………………………………………………….. Date ……………………..
Rating scale and symbols:
1 2 3 4
Complete the assessment below using a
Never Not very Quite Very consensus of opinions from other people who
good good good good know the person well.
Transfer the assessment below to the

assessment summary wheel.
Body Language
1 2 3 4
Eye contact Very good – effective and
Never good – avoids eye contact at appropriate use of eye contact in all
all times during conversations or situations
continuously stares
Facial expression Very good – effective use of a range

Never good – inappropriate to of facial expressions, changing
situation. May include scowling, according to the situation, eg
grinning, blank expression, etc expresses own moods and feelings
through facial expressions
Gestures Very good – uses hand gestures
Never good – uses inappropriate effectively, eg for emphasis or
hand gestures excessively, or no use substitution of speech
of hand gestures
Distance Very good – adapts distance

Never good – inappropriate distance appropriately and effectively,
when communicating, causing ie according to relationships and
discomfort to others social situations
Touch Very good – effective and

Never good – excessive use or appropriate use of touch, ie a
avoidance of touch which causes degree of touch which is acceptable
embarrassment or anger in others to others and/or the situation
18
ASSESSMENT
Body Language (continued)

1 2 3 4
Fidgeting Very good – rarely fidgets
Never good – excessive fidgeting
that is distracting and causes a
barrier to communication
Posture Very good – normal posture and

Never good – usually inappropriate gait, appropriate to all situations
to situation, ie inappropriately rigid
or relaxed
Personal appearance Very good – maintains and adapts

Never good – habitually unkempt appearance to different situations,
appearance and/or inappropriate seasons and age. Uses appearance
clothing for season or situation to create different impressions
The Way We Talk

1 2 3 4
Volume Very good – uses and adapts volume
Never good – mostly uses appropriately in all situations
inappropriate volume, eg voice too
loud or quiet for the situation
Rate Very good – rate of speech is

Never good – consistently appropriate and adapted effectively,
inappropriate rate, eg too fast, slow, eg increasing rate when there is a
fluctuating between extremes sense of urgency
Clarity Very good – speech is consistently

Never good – habitual use of clear and easily understood
indistinct speech, eg mumbling
Intonation Very good – intonation is used

Never good – consistently effectively and appropriately, ie
inappropriate, eg monotonous or adapted to situation and content of
exaggerated speech
Fluency Very good – fluent speech

Never good – consistently dysfluent,
eg severe hesitations in speech,
“um”and
excessive use of ‘um’ and‘er’
“er”
19
ASSESSMENT
Conversational Skills
1 2 3 4
Listening Very good – a good listener showing
Never good – difficulty in effective and appropriate use of
listening and lack of non-verbal non-verbal reinforcers
reinforcement, eg eye contact,
nodding
Starting a conversation Very good – effective and

Never good – rarely initiates appropriate use of conversation
conversations or inappropriate starters
to situation, eg habitual subject
matter
Taking turns Very good – uses good turn-taking

Never good – monopolises skills and effectively responds to
conversations with minimal cues, eg natural breaks, eye contact,
listening or makes few questioning
contributions
Asking questions Very good – asks questions with

Never good – does not ask appropriate frequency especially
questions during conversations when gaining information to
or seek further information when maintain a conversation
needed
Answering questions Very good – responds to questions

Never good – does not answer effectively and appropriately to
questions during conversations maintain a conversation
or uses minimal utterances,
“yes,”‘no’
eg ‘yes’, “no”
Being relevant Very good – can maintain and

Never good – has difficulty in develop a topic effectively and
following a topic of conversation, appropriately
eg introduces unrelated ideas
Repairing Very good – seeks clarification and

Never good – does not seek further information effectively and
clarification or further information appropriately
when a misunderstanding occurs
Ending a conversation Very good – consistently ends

Never good – has great difficulty conversations effectively and
in ending conversations or goes off appropriately with appropriate
without adequate closure non-verbal and verbal behavior
20
ASSESSMENT
Assertiveness Skills
1 2 3 4
Expressing feelings Very good – effective and appropriate
Never good – does not express expression of feelings or needs, ie
feelings or needs effectively or expresses feelings with appropriate
appropriately. May appear passive body language and vocabulary
or aggressive in their ability to tell
you how they feel
Standing up for yourself Very good – stands up for self or rights

Never good – does not stand up effectively and appropriately, ie can
for self or rights and may appear represent own views and feelings in
passive or aggressive or will stand up an assertive way
for self inappropriately
Making suggestions Very good – makes suggestions

Never good – does not make or gives opinions effectively and
suggestions. May appear passive, appropriately and in the correct
easily led, or continuously making context
suggestions, or not listening to
others
Refusing Very good – has well-developed skills

Never good – always complies in refusal which are used effectively
with requests even when against and appropriately, ie uses appropriate
their will or will refuse aggressively, non-verbal and verbal behavior
inappropriately or continuously
Disagreeing Very good – disagrees with opinions

Never good – does not disagree with and statements effectively and
opinions and may appear passive appropriately, ie uses good
or easily influenced or will disagree non-verbal and verbal behavior
aggressively or continuously
Complaining Very good – complains effectively

Never good – does not complain and appropriately to the situation by
when appropriate or may stating reasons clearly and assertively
communicate dissatisfaction
inappropriately and complain
continuously
Apologizing Very good – apologizes effectively

Never good – does not apologize and appropriately using appropriate
when appropriate or expected, verbal and non-verbal behavior
may be defensive or aggressive
or continuously apologizes
inappropriately
Requesting explanations Very good – shows effective skills in

Never good – does not question requesting further explanations when
requests or decisions and necessary
may respond inappropriately
or continuously requests
inappropriately
21
ASSESSMENT
Comments
Completed by …………………………………………………. Date ……………………..
22
Another Random Document on
Scribd Without Any Related Topics
not the Natachee of the schools that was about to speak. Drawing himself
up proudly, the red man said:
“Hugh Edwards, listen—seven days ago this stealer of women, Sonora
Jack, and his companions, crawled like three snakes into Natachee’s hut.
Hiding, they struck, when Natachee alone crossed the threshold of his
home. In the night, they bound the Indian to a rock, and but for you would
have put live coals from their fire on his naked breast. One of the three who
did that thing is dying in the Cañon of Gold—is even now, perhaps, dead,
but I, Natachee, did not strike him. The body of another is over there in the
Vaca Hills. He did not die by the hand of the Indian he had trapped. Sonora
Jack alone is left. He is left for me. Do you understand?”
The white man, remembering the Indian’s face and manner when he had
found the Lizard’s body, understood. Slowly—reluctantly, he said:
“This is your affair, Natachee, have it your own way.”
They had not waited long when Natachee saw Sonora Jack and a
Mexican riding down through the hills. The Indian, fitting an arrow to his
bow, said to his companion:
“When I give the word, stand up and cover Sonora Jack with your rifle.”
With their eyes on the tracks they were following, the outlaws rode
swiftly toward the rocks where Natachee and Edwards were waiting.
Sonora Jack was a little in advance. They were just past the cliff when the
Mexican, with a cry, tumbled from his saddle. Sonora Jack pulled his horse
up sharply and whirled about to see what had happened. At the moment he
caught sight of the arrow in the body of his fallen companion, Natachee’s
voice rang out from the rock above with the familiar command: “Put up
your hands.”
And looking up, the outlaw saw the Indian with another arrow drawn to
its head, and the white man with his menacing rifle.
While Edwards covered the trapped outlaw, the Indian relieved their
captive of his guns and ordered him to dismount. Then Natachee motioned
for Edwards to lower his rifle and stood face to face with Sonora Jack.
From his position on the rocks, Hugh Edwards looked down upon them
with intense interest.
At last the red man spoke.
“The snake that crawled into Natachee’s hut to strike when the Indian
was not looking is caught. One of his brother snakes he left to die in the
home he robbed. Another, he killed with his own hand. It is not well that
even one of the three snakes that hid in Natachee’s hut should remain alive.
When Sonora Jack, with the help of his two brother snakes, had bound
Natachee to a rock, Sonora Jack was very brave. He was so brave that he
dared even to strike the helpless Indian. Now, he shall strike the Indian
again—if he can.
“When the snake, Sonora Jack, would have put his coals of fire on the
naked breast of the Indian, he required the help of two others. If I,
Natachee, could not alone kill a snake, I would die of shame. The one who
frightened Sonora Jack and his brave friends so that they ran like rabbits
into the brush is here. But Natachee is not bound to a rock now. Sonora Jack
need not fear the one from whom he and his brothers ran in such haste.
Hugh Edwards will not point his rifle toward the snake that I, Natachee,
will kill.
“Sonora Jack boasted that with live coals of fire he would burn the heart
out of Natachee’s breast. There is no fire here, but here is a knife. Sonora
Jack also has a knife. Let the snake, who was so brave with his two brother
snakes when they hid in Natachee’s hut and bound the Indian to a rock,
keep his heart from the knife of the Indian now—if he can.”
The two men were by no means unevenly matched in stature or in
strength. Both were men whose muscles had been hardened by their active
lives in the desert and the mountains. Both were skilled in the use of the
knife as a weapon. Sonora Jack fought with the desperate fury of a cornered
animal. The Indian, cool and calculating, seemed in no haste to finish that
which in his savage pride he had set himself to accomplish. So swiftly did
the duelists change positions, so closely were they locked together as they
wheeled and twisted in their struggles, that the white man, who was
trembling with tense excitement, could not have used his rifle if he would.
At his repeated failures to touch the Indian with his knife, the outlaw lost,
more and more, his self-control, until he was fighting with reckless and
ungoverned madness. Natachee, wary and collected, smiled grimly as he
saw the fear in the straining face of his enemy.
Then twice, in quick succession, the point of the Indian’s knife reached
the outlaw’s breast but with no effect. Edwards gasped in dismay as he saw
the baffled look which came into Natachee’s face. Again the Indian, with all
the strength of his arm, drove his weapon at the outlaw’s heart and again
Sonora Jack was unharmed. Suddenly the Indian changed his method of
attack. To Edwards, the duel seemed to become a wrestling match. For a
moment they struggled, locked in each other’s arms, their limbs entwined,
writhing and straining. Then they fell, and to Edwards’ horror, the Indian
was under the outlaw. But the next instant, while Sonora Jack was
struggling to free his knife arm for a death blow, the Indian, hugging his
antagonist close, forced his weapon between Sonora Jack’s shoulders.
The muscles of the outlaw relaxed—his body became limp. Natachee
rolled to one side and leaped to his feet. As if he had forgotten the solitary
witness of the combat, the Indian calmly recovered his knife and stood
looking down at the man who was already dead.
Sick with horror of the thing he had been forced to witness, Hugh
Edwards called to the Indian:
“Come, Natachee, for God’s sake let’s get away from here.”
“The snake that crawled into Natachee’s hut is dead,” returned the
Indian. “The stealer of women will not again steal the woman Hugh
Edwards loves.”
Hugh was already starting back to the place where they had left Marta.
When he noticed that the Indian was not following, he paused to call again:
“Aren’t you coming?”
“Go on,” returned Natachee, “I will join you in a moment.”
And Hugh Edwards, from where he now stood, could not see that
Natachee was examining the body of the outlaw to learn why the point of
his knife had three times been kept from Sonora Jack’s breast.
When Hugh reached Marta, the Indian was just behind him. To the girl,
Natachee said simply:
“You can ride home in peace now. There is no one to follow our trail.
Sonora Jack will never come for you again.”
And Marta asked no questions.
On the homeward journey, Natachee did not follow the course they had
come, but took a more direct route. Near Indian Oasis they stopped, while
Natachee went to the store to purchase food. When they camped for the
night, Marta would let them rest only an hour or two, insisting that she must
push on.
In the excitement and dangers of that first night, there had been no
opportunity for Hugh Edwards to speak to Marta of his love. And now, as
the hours of their long, trying journey passed, he still did not speak. There
really was no need for him to speak—they both knew so well. The girl was
so distressed by her anxiety for Thad and by her grief over Bob’s death and
so worn by her terrible experience, that Hugh could not bring himself to
talk of the plans that meant so much to him.
When they were safely back in the Cañon of Gold and Marta was rested
—when she had found comfort and strength in Mother Burton’s arms, then
he would tell her his love and ask her to go with him to a place of freedom
and happiness.
CHAPTER XXX
PARDNERS STILL
Every day he spent the greater part of his time
under the mesquite trees with Bob, and in the night,
they would hear him going out “to see,” as he said,
“if his pardner was all right.”
I N the Cañada del Oro, Doctor Burton and his mother watched beside the
old prospector and the wounded Mexican.
The man who had been so heartlessly abandoned by his outlaw leader
did not speak; but his eyes, like the eyes of a wounded animal, followed
every movement of Saint Jimmy and Mother Burton. But as the days and
nights of suffering passed, and he received nothing but the gentlest and
most attentive care from the two good Samaritans into whose hands he had
fallen, the expression of suspicion and fear which had at first marked his
every glance gave way to a look of wondering and pathetic gratitude.
It was late in the afternoon of that first day following the tragedy, when
Thad regained consciousness. Saint Jimmy, who was at the bedside when
the sturdy old prospector looked up at him with a smile of recognition, said
cheerfully:
“Good morning, neighbor. How are you? Had a good sleep?”
There was the suggestion of a twinkle in those faded blue eyes as Thad
returned:
“There ain’t no need for you to pretend none with me, Doc. I come to,
quite a spell back. Got a peek at you, though, first thing when you weren’t
lookin’ an’ I jest naterally shut my eyes again quick. I been layin’ here,
figgerin’ things out. Got ’em about figgered, I reckon.” His leathery,
wrinkled, old face twisted in a grimace of pain and his gray lips quivered as
he added: “They got my gal, didn’t they?”
Saint Jimmy returned gravely:
“You must be careful not to excite yourself, Thad. You have had a
dangerous injury.”
“Holy Cats! You don’t need to think this is the first time I ever been
knocked out. My old head is tougher than you know. You don’t need to
worry about me gettin’ rattled neither. I tell you I know what happened up
to the time that half Mex devil hit me with his gun. I know they must a-got
her or she would a-been settin’ right here, certain sure—tell me.”
“Yes, they took her away, but Hugh Edwards and Natachee are on their
trail.”
“What time did the boys start after them?”
“About noon.”
“Good enough. They won’t throw the Injun off, an’ him an’ Hugh will be
able to handle them if they ain’t too many.”
“There are only two with Marta—Sonora Jack and the Lizard.”
“The Lizard, you say? Is he in on this deal too?”
“Yes.”
“Huh, I always knowed he’d do some real meanness if he ever worked
up nerve enough. That made three of them, then?”
“Yes.”
“I got one of them, didn’t I?”
“Yes, he is lying in the other room.”
“Pretty sick, is he?”
“He is going to die, Thad.”
“Uh-huh, that’s what I expected him to do when I took a shot at him.”
The old prospector looked at Doctor Burton appealingly, as if there was
another question which he longed, yet dreaded to ask.
Saint Jimmy evaded the unspoken question by asking:
“Have you guessed who that fellow, John Holt, really is, Thad?”
“He certain sure ain’t no decent prospector or he wouldn’t be tryin’ to
carry away my gal like he’s doin’—that’s all I know.”
“He is Sonora Jack the outlaw. Natachee found it out.”
“Holy Cats! An’ I wasted a shot on a measly Mex when I might jest as
well a-picked the king himself first. But what do you figger he wants to
carry off my gal that-a-way for?”
“I wish we knew,” said Saint Jimmy.
“Wal, there ain’t no good tryin’ to guess. We’ll know what we know
when Natachee and Hugh comes back with her—But, say, Doc——“
The old prospector hesitated, and his gaze roamed about the room.
Saint Jimmy swallowed a lump in his throat.
“What, Thad?”
“Where—why—“ the gnarled fingers plucked at the bedding nervously,
and the faded blue eyes at last met the eyes of the younger man with such
pathetic fear that Saint Jimmy’s eyes filled.
“Why ain’t my Pardner Bob here? Where is he? He didn’t go with the
Injun an’ the boy?”
“No, Thad, Bob did not go with Hugh and Natachee.”
The old prospector put out his trembling hand as if to cling to Saint
Jimmy, and Doctor Burton caught it in both his own.
“They—they didn’t get my pardner—Bob ain’t cashed in?”
Saint Jimmy bowed his head.
Then his mother came to the door and the Doctor willingly made an
excuse to leave his patient for a little. When he returned an hour later and
Mother Burton had yielded her place to him and left the room, old Thad
smiled up at him.
“That mother of yourn is a plumb wonder, sir. I always suspicioned it on
account of what she’s done for Marta, but I know now that I hadn’t even
begun to appreciate it. I reckon I’ll be gettin’ up now.”
“And I reckon you won’t,” retorted the Doctor, putting out a firm hand
and pushing him back on the pillow. “You’ll stay right where you are until
to-morrow morning. You have already talked too much. Here, let me fix the
bandage. There, that will do. Now take this and turn your face to the wall—
and keep quiet.”
The old prospector obeyed.
But the next morning he was out of the house before either Saint Jimmy
or his mother had left their beds. When Mrs. Burton went to call him for
breakfast, she found him beside the grave under the mesquite trees.
“You see, ma’am,” he explained with childish confusion, “I got to
imaginin’ ’long in the night that my Pardner Bob must be feelin’ all-fired
lonesome an’ left-out like, with me sleepin’ in the house an’ him out here all
alone. Bob an’ me ain’t never been very far apart, you see, for a good many
years now, an’ so I felt like he’d kind of want me ’round somewheres. It’s
funny, ain’t it, how an old desert rat like me could get fussed up that-a-way!
I think mebby that Bob would feel some better too if only our gal was here.
I’m plumb sure I would. But I know she’ll be back all right. That Injun can
hang to a trail like the smell follers a skunk, an’ the boy will be here too,
with both feet, when it comes to gettin’ her away from them again. That half
Mex an’ the Lizard won’t stand a show agin Natachee an’ our Hugh. I wish
they’d hurry back, though.
“Yes, ma’am, I’m comin’.
“So long, Pardner, I got to get my breakfast. I’ll be back again directly.”
Every day he spent the greater part of his time under the mesquite trees
with Bob, and in the night they would hear him going out “to see,” as he
said, “if his pardner was all right.”
It was there that Marta found him the morning of her return with Hugh
and Natachee.
Later, when Mother Burton had put the tired girl to bed, old Thad
roamed contentedly about the place, petting Nugget and going often to the
door of Marta’s room to listen with a smile for any sound that would tell
him the girl was awake. And that night he did not leave the house.
“You see, ma’am,” he explained to Mother Burton in the morning, “Bob
he’s all right now that our gal is safe home again and there ain’t nobody
ever goin’ to steal her no more. It’s a good thing the Lizard is gone an’ that
the Injun done for that Sonora Jack, ’cause if they hadn’t a-got what was
comin’ to ’em, I’d be obliged to take a try for them myself, old as I be. I
couldn’t never a-looked Bob in the face again nohow, if I’d a-let them
hombres get away with such a job as that. But it’s all right now—it’s sure
all right.”
During the forenoon of the day following Marta’s return, the Mexican at
last spoke to Doctor Burton, who was dressing his patient’s wound. As the
man spoke in his native tongue, Saint Jimmy could not understand. Going
to the door, he called Natachee. When the Mexican had repeated what he
had said, the Indian interpreted his words for Saint Jimmy.
“He says he thinks he is going to die and wants to know if it is so.”
“Shall I tell him the truth, Natachee?”
“Why not?” returned the Indian coldly. “He may have something that he
wishes to say. Perhaps it is something the friends of Miss Hillgrove should
know.”
“Tell him, then, that there is no hope for his life. Death is certain. It may
come any time now.”
When Natachee had repeated the Doctor’s words in the Mexican tongue
and the dying man had replied, the Indian said:
“There is something that he wants to tell. He says that you and your
mother have been so kind that he will not die without speaking of the girl
you both love so much. I think you should call the others. It may be in the
nature of a confession and it would be well to have them.”
He spoke again to the Mexican and the man answered:
“Si, habla le a la muchacha y sus amigos.”
Natachee interpreted:
“Yes, call the girl and her friends.”
A few minutes later Mother Burton, Thad, Hugh Edwards and Marta
were with Saint Jimmy and the Indian in the presence of the dying
Mexican.
CHAPTER XXXI
THE MEXICAN’S CONFESSION

It was well that no one in the room, save Natachee
and the Mexican, could at that moment see Saint
Jimmy’s face.
S LOWLY the eyes of the Mexican turned from face to face of the silent
group. But it was upon Saint Jimmy’s face that his gaze finally rested,
and it was to Saint Jimmy that he addressed himself. The Indian, as
coldly impersonal and impassive as a mechanical instrument, translated:
“He says that you, Doctor Burton, are a man who lives very close to
God. When you are near him, he can feel God.”
“God is never far from any man,” returned Saint Jimmy.
Natachee translated the Doctor’s words, and the Mexican replied in his
mother tongue, which the Indian rendered in English.
“He says, yes, sir, that is true, but some men keep their backs toward
God and refuse to see or listen to Him. He says he is one who has lived with
his face away from God.”
“Tell him, then, to turn around.”
Again the Indian translated Saint Jimmy’s words and received the
Mexican’s answer.
“He says he sees God when he looks at you—that if you will remain
with him when he dies he can go with his face toward God.”
“I will not leave him,” returned Saint Jimmy. “Tell him not to fear.”
When he received this message from the Indian, the man smiled and
made the sign of the cross. Then he spoke again and Natachee translated:
“He says to thank you, and that now he will tell you all he knows about
the girl you love.”
It was well that no one in the room, save Natachee and the Mexican,
could at that moment see Saint Jimmy’s face.
“Tell him that we are listening.”
With frequent pauses to gather strength or to shape the things he would
say, the Mexican told his story. In those intervals Natachee’s deep voice,
without a trace of feeling, made the message clear to the little company.
“His name is Chico Alvarez. He was a member of Sonora Jack’s band of
outlaws in the years when they were active here in this part of Arizona.
“About twenty years ago they held up a man and woman who were
driving in a covered wagon on the road from Tucson to Yuma and
California. The man and woman were killed. There was a little girl hiding
in the bottom of the wagon. They did not know the baby was there when
they shot the man and woman.
“When Sonora Jack was searching the outfit for money and valuables, he
found papers and letters that told him about the little girl. She was not the
child of the people who were killed. They had stolen her, when she was a
little baby, from her real parents who lived in the east.
“Sonora Jack saved all the papers and letters that told about the child,
but burned everything else in the outfit so that no one would know there
had been a child with the man and woman. He took the baby with him. He
said her parents were very rich and would pay much money to have their
little girl again.
“The officers were close after the outlaws who were escaping to their
place across the border, and Sonora Jack left the little girl with his mother,
who was Mexican and lived with her man, not Jack’s father, on a little ranch
near the border. When Sonora Jack went back to his mother for the child,
after the sheriff and his men had given up trying to catch him that time, he
found that two prospectors had taken the little girl away.
“Sonora Jack dared not come again into the United States because of the
reward that was offered for him, so he could not follow the prospectors, and
the little girl was lost to him. Sonora Jack went south in Mexico and stayed
there where he was safe.
“Last year a man showed him an old Spanish map of the Cañada del Oro
and the Mine with the Iron Door. Sonora Jack and this man, Chico, came to
find the mine. They did not find the mine but they found again the little girl,
whose people would pay so much money to have her back. Sonora Jack
planned to steal the girl. He said they would take her into Mexico and keep
her until her people paid much money. If it should be that her people were
dead, then he and Chico would make from her enough money in another
way to pay them for their trouble. That is all.”
The Mexican closed his eyes wearily.
Saint Jimmy spoke quickly:
“Ask him what became of the things that told about the little girl’s
parents, and how she was stolen from them.”
The Indian spoke to the man and received his reply.
“He says, ‘I do not know. Sonora Jack he always keep those things for
himself.’ ”
Hugh Edwards cried hoarsely:
“But the name, Natachee, ask him the name.”
The dying Mexican opened his eyes as the Indian, bending over him,
repeated the question. He answered:
“Eso nunca me dijo Sonora Jack,” and with a look toward Saint Jimmy,
sank into unconsciousness.
Natachee faced toward that little company of agitated listeners.
“He says, ‘Sonora Jack never did tell me that.’ ”
Mother Burton led Marta from the room. Old Thad, muttering to himself,
followed.
Doctor Burton turned from the bedside, saying quietly:
“It is all over. He is gone.”
Natachee spoke:
“You, Doctor Burton—and you, Hugh Edwards, wait here for me. The
others will not come again into this room for a little while. Wait, I will come
back in a moment.”
The Indian left the room.
Hugh Edwards and Saint Jimmy looked at each other in wondering
silence.
When Natachee returned, he held in his hand a flat package, some six
inches wide by eight inches long and about an inch in thickness. The
envelope was of leather, laced securely, and there were straps attached. The
straps had been cut.
The Indian addressed Hugh:
“As I fought with Sonora Jack, did you see that when I struck his breast
my knife drew no blood?”
“Yes,” returned Edwards, “I saw it and wondered about it at the time.
But what happened immediately after made me forget. Now that you
mention it, I remember distinctly.”
“Good! When you had gone back to Miss Hillgrove, I looked to see why
my knife had refused to touch the snake’s heart until I found the way
between his shoulders. This package was fastened to Sonora Jack’s breast
under his shirt. This strap was over his shoulder to support it. This other
strap was around his chest to hold the packet in place. Look, there are the
marks of my knife. Three times I struck—there and there and there.”
The two white men exclaimed with amazement at the Indian’s statement.
“I think,” said Natachee slowly, “that you would do well to see what this
thing is, that the stealer of little girls hid so carefully under his clothing and
fastened so securely to his body.”
Hugh Edwards drew back with an appealing look at Saint Jimmy, who
took the packet from the Indian.
“Must this thing be opened?” said Edwards.
“Yes, Hugh, I think so,” returned the Doctor gently. “Anything else
would hardly be fair to Marta, would it?”
“No, I suppose not,” answered Edwards with a groan. “All right, go
ahead. You can tell me when you have finished.”
He turned away and went to the window where he sat with his back
toward Saint Jimmy, who seated himself at the table. Natachee stood near
the door with his arms folded, as motionless as a statue.
Undoing the lacing of the leather envelope, Saint Jimmy found a number
of newspaper clippings, so cut as to preserve the name and date line of the
paper—several letters—and a diary, with various entries under different
dates, rather poorly written but legible.
Swiftly he scanned the printed articles. The diary and the letters he read
with more care.
Hugh Edwards was like a man condemned already in his own mind,
awaiting the formality of the verdict.
When Marta’s birth and the character of her parents had been under a
cloud, the man who was branded before the world a criminal had felt that
their love was right and that there was no obstacle to their marriage. He had
reasoned, indeed, that their happiness would in a measure lighten the
shadow that lay over the girl’s life, and in a degree would atone for the
injustice under which he himself had suffered. The unjust shame and
humiliation that the girl had felt so keenly—the dishonor and shame that
injustice had brought upon him, had been to them a common bond; while
the knowledge of what each had innocently suffered and the sympathy of
each for the other had deepened and strengthened their love.
But as he listened to the dying Mexican’s story, he saw the barrier that
was being raised to his happiness with the girl he loved. Marta’s birth and
parentage were not, after all, what the old prospectors, Saint Jimmy, and
Marta herself had believed. What, then, was left to justify him in asking her
to become the wife of a convict? If, indeed, her birth and name were
without a shadow, how could he ask her to accept his name—dishonored as
it was? And if it should be shown that her people were living—if they were
people of importance and honor, how then could the convict who loved her
ask her to share his life of dishonor?
When the Mexican had been unable to give the name, hope had again
risen in Edwards’ heart. But when Natachee brought the packet which
Sonora Jack had treasured with such care, Hugh Edwards knew that it was
only a matter of minutes until the identity of the woman he loved would be
established, which meant that now he could never ask her to be his wife.
Saint Jimmy finished reading the papers and carefully placed them again
in the leather envelope. To the watching Indian, he seemed undecided. He
had the air of one not quite sure of his hand.
At last, looking up, he said slowly:
“You are right, Natachee, this envelope completes the Mexican’s story
and establishes the identity of the girl we have always known as Marta
Hillgrove.”
CHAPTER XXXII
REVELATION
Natachee remembered
H UGH EDWARDS rose to his feet.

“Well,” he said desperately, “let’s have it.”
Saint Jimmy answered in an odd musing tone:
“Marta, or Martha, for that is her name, was born in a little city in
southwestern Missouri—in the lead and zinc mining district. Her parents
were both held in the highest esteem in the community where their families
had lived for three generations.
“About the time Marta was born, her father, who was a real-estate
speculator and trader on a rather small scale, purchased a tract of land from
some people who could barely make a living on it. The land was hilly and
stony and covered mostly with scrub oak, which made it almost worthless
for farming and the man and his wife were glad to get the usual market
price for such property.
“But shortly after, this same cheap farm land was developed as a very
valuable mineral property—about the richest, in fact, in that district.”
Hugh Edwards interrupted:
“Wait a minute—did you learn all this just now from the contents of that
package?”
“No, Hugh, the fact is, I was born and grew up in that same Missouri
town. It was the home of my people, and even after I went to St. Louis, I
was in close touch with the old place. These papers here merely fill in some
of the missing details of a story that I have known for years. I am trying to
tell it to you so that you will understand everything clearly.”
“Go on, please.”
“When the property they had sold proved so valuable, the people who
had been glad to receive the price they did for their supposedly worthless
farm lands were very bitter. They considered themselves swindled and,
being the sort they were, brooded over their fancied wrongs until they
formed a plan of revenge. They stole the baby, Martha.
“The plan of the kidnappers, as it is shown here,” Saint Jimmy touched
the packet on the table, “was to hold the little girl until her father had made
a fortune from the mineral lands he had purchased from them, and then to
force him to pay a large part of that wealth back to them as a ransom for the
child.
“The man and woman, with the baby, traveled west by wagon. They
always camped. When supplies were needed, the man would go alone to
purchase them. They rarely entered a town except to pass through, and then
of course took every precaution to hide the child. Their plan to extort
money from the father, led them to preserve carefully the evidence that
would later prove the identity of the little girl. Their fears of arrest led them
to conceal their own identity as carefully. It was more than a year later
when they reached Tucson. The rest of the story we have heard.
“I should add that Marta’s mother died six months after the baby was
stolen. George Clinton, after his wife’s death, sold his mining interests and
moved to California.”
Hugh Edwards started forward. His face was ghastly. His lips trembled
so that he could scarcely form the words. “George Clinton, did you say?”
“Yes.”
“George Willard Clinton?”
“Yes, do you know of him?”
Hugh Edwards, fighting for self-control, became very still. Turning his
back on the others, he walked to the window and stood looking out.
“Yes,” he said at last, and his voice was steady now, “yes, I know him.
He lives in Los Angeles. I had heard that he was at one time interested in
mines in Missouri. But of course I knew nothing of this story that you have
told. He is a very wealthy man.”
“What a splendid thing for Marta,” exclaimed Saint Jimmy.
Hugh Edwards left the window and went to stand beside the body of the
Mexican.
“Yes, it will be very fine for her.”
And suddenly, as he stood looking down at the dead man, Hugh Edwards
laughed.
Saint Jimmy sprang to his feet. Such laughter was not good to hear.
“Hugh!”
The man whirled on him. “You win, Saint Jimmy—congratulations.” He
rushed madly from the room.
Saint Jimmy gazed at Natachee, speechless with amazement.
“What on earth did he mean by that!” he said at last.
“Is it possible you do not know?”
The other shook his head.
Natachee said slowly:
“When everybody believed that the woman Hugh Edwards loved was
one who had no real right to even the name she bore, then he could ask her
to become his wife. Now that the woman is the daughter of honor and
wealth, how can the convict expect her to go with him? Hugh Edwards is
not blind. He sees it is now more fitting that the woman he loves become
the wife of his friend, Saint Jimmy, upon whose name there is no shadow.”
But Natachee, with the cunning of his Indian nature, had not given Saint
Jimmy the whole truth in his explanation of Hugh Edwards’ manner.
Natachee remembered that the man who had promoted that investment
company, and who had used his power, as the president of the institution, to
rob the people of their savings, and who, to shield himself, had sent Donald
Payne, an innocent man, to prison, was George Willard Clinton.
CHAPTER XXXIII
GOLD
He saw that the need of gold is a curse—that the
craving for gold is a greater curse—that the
possession of gold may be the greatest curse of all.
W HEN Hugh Edwards left Saint Jimmy and the Indian, he was beside
himself with grief and rage. He had prepared himself, in a measure, to
lose Marta. He had told himself that his love was strong enough to
endure even that test, but to give her up because she proved to be the
daughter of the man who, by making him a convict, had robbed him of the
right to keep her, was more than he could endure.
As he rushed blindly from the house that had been to him a house of
refuge, but was now become a house of torment, Marta called to him.
He did not stop. He must get away—away from them all. The old
prospector, Saint Jimmy, Natachee, Marta, the dead Mexican—they had all
conspired with God to sink him in a hell of conflicting love and hatred.
When he came to himself, he was at the cabin where he had made his
home during those first months of his life in the Cañon of Gold. When he
was seeking a place to hide, as a wild creature wounded by the hunters
seeks to hide from the dogs, he had found that little cabin. He had learned to
feel safe there. But he did not feel safe there now. The empty place was
crowded with memories that would drive him to some deed of madness.
It was there his dream of freedom and love had been born. It was there
that the dear comradeship of the girl had led him to believe there might still
be something to hope for, to work for and to live for. He could not stay
there now. The place was no longer a place where he could hide from his
enemies; it was a trap, a snare. He must go, and go quickly.
Without consciously willing his movements, indeed, without realizing
where he was going, he climbed out of the cañon and hurried away up the
mountain slopes and along the ridges in the direction of Natachee’s hut.
With no clearly defined trail to follow, it is doubtful if in his normal mental
state he could have found the place. He certainly would not have made the
attempt, particularly at that time of day. But some subconscious memory
must have guided him, for at sundown he found himself in the familiar
gulch where he had toiled all through the winter for the gold that meant for
him the realization of his dreams of freedom and happiness with Marta.
When night came, he was seated on that spot from which he had so often, in
the agony of those lonely months of hiding, watched the tiny point of light
in the gloom of the cañon below.
With his eyes fixed on that red spot, which he knew was the window of
Marta’s room, Hugh Edwards brooded over the series of events that had
ended in that hour of his dead hopes and broken dreams.
His thoughts went back even to those glad days when he was graduated
from his university, and when, with a heart of honest courage and purpose,
he had accepted a position of trust in the institution that seemed to afford
such an opportunity for service. He recalled every proud step of his
advancement from office to office, of increasing responsibility.
He lived again that appalling hour when he knew that he had been
promoted only that he might be betrayed. Again he suffered the agony of his
arrest—the trial, with his baffled attempts to prove his innocence—the
hideous publicity—the hatred of the people—and again he heard the
sentence that condemned him to years in prison, and to a life of dishonor
and shame.
Once more he endured the horror of a convict’s life—and the death of
his mother.
Then came the terrible experiences of his escape—when he was hunted
as a wild beast is hunted, with dogs and guns.
And then—the Cañon of Gold, with its promise of peace and safety—its
blessed work and dreams and hopes—its miraculous gift of love.
One by one, the strange events of his life in the Cañon of Gold passed in
review before him—the period when he lived in the cabin next door to the
old prospectors and their partnership daughter—his comradeship with
Marta and the sure development of their love—the story of the girl’s
questionable parentage that had made it possible for him to think of her as
his wife—then the visit of the sheriff—his enforced life of torment with the
Indian, and his fruitless toil for the gold that held him with its promise of
freedom and Marta.
Again he lived over the coming of the outlaw, with the sudden turn of
fortune that made Natachee his ally, and gave him the gold from the Mine
with the Iron Door.
And then, with the gold in his possession and all its promises almost
within his grasp, the tragedy and disaster that had followed. Until now,
having gained the wealth for which, inspired by love, he had toiled and
fought, he had lost the thing which gave the gold its value. The thing for
which he had wanted the gold had become impossible to him.
The light in the Cañon of Gold went out. The hours passed, and still the
man held his place on that wild spot high up in the mountains.
And now he saw and felt the mysteries of the night—saw the wide sea of
darkness that engulfed the vast desert below, and felt the whispering breath
of the desert air—saw the mighty peaks and shoulders of the mountains
lifting out of the dark shadows below, up and up and up into the star-lit sky,
and felt the fragrant coolness dropping from the pines that held the snows—
saw the night sky filled with countless star worlds, and felt the brooding
Presence that fixes the time of their every movement, and marks their paths
of gleaming light—saw the black depths of the Cañon of Gold, and felt the
ghostly multitude of the disappointed ones who had toiled there, as he had
toiled, for the treasure they never found, or, finding, were cursed with its
possession.
And then, as one who in a vision glimpses the underlying truth of things,
this man, on the mountain heights above the Cañada del Oro, saw that life
itself was but a Cañon of Gold.
As men through the ages had braved the dangers and endured the
hardships of desert and mountains to gain the yellow wealth from the
Cañada del Oro, so men braved dangers and endured hardships everywhere.
Every dream of man was a dream of gold. Every effort was an effort for
gold. Every hope was a hope for gold. For gold was life and honor and
power and love and happiness. And gold was death and dishonor and
murder and hatred and misery.
It was gold that had led Marta’s father to purchase the rich mining
property from the ignorant owners, for a price that was little more than
nothing. The victims of George Clinton’s shrewdness had stolen his child,
in the hope that by her they might regain the gold they had lost. It was for
gold that Clinton had robbed the people who, because of their need for gold,
had trusted him with their savings. To insure himself in the possession of
gold, Clinton had sent Donald Payne to prison and condemned him to a life
of dishonor. Gold, to the escaped convict, had meant, at first, the bare
necessities of life. It had come to mean everything for which a man desires
to live. For gold, Sonora Jack had given himself to crime. Lured by the gold
of the Mine with the Iron Door he had come to the Cañada del Oro and had
been brought, finally, to his death. It was gold that had, at last, led to the
revelations that brought the love of Hugh Edwards and Marta to naught.
The man saw that the story of his life in the Cañon of Gold, with its
needs, its hopes, its labor, its fears, its victories and defeats, was the story of
all life, everywhere.
He saw that the need of gold is a curse—that the craving for gold is a
greater curse—that the possession of gold may be the greatest curse of all.
When Hugh Edwards went down to the cabin he found Natachee the
Indian waiting for him.
CHAPTER XXXIV
MORNING
“The heart of a white man is a strange thing—I,
Natachee, cannot understand.”
A ND Hugh Edwards knew by the light that flashed in the Indian’s

somber eyes—by the expression of that dark countenance, and by the
proud bearing of the red man, that Natachee had put aside the teaching
of the white man’s school. There was something, too, beneath the Indian’s
stoical composure which told Hugh that he was under the strain of some
great excitement.
Gazing at Edwards with a curious intentness, the Indian said:
“My friend has been watching his star in the Cañon of Gold.”
“Yes, Natachee, I have been up on the mountain.”
Silently the Indian gave him a letter. It was from Marta.
Hugh handled the letter, turning it over and over, as if debating with
himself what he should do with it.
“Open it and read,” said the Indian, “then hear what I, Natachee, shall
say.”
Edwards opened the letter and read.
It was not a long letter, but it was filled with the strongest assurances of
understanding and sympathy that a woman’s loving heart could pen. Saint
Jimmy had told her of the completion of the story that had been left
unfinished by the Mexican, and had explained its effect on the man she
loved. But it made no difference to her, that she was proved to be the
daughter of George Clinton, except that she was glad for her future
husband’s sake that her birth was honorable—that she was not nameless, as
she had believed herself to be. For the rest, everything must go on exactly
as if she were still the old prospectors’ partnership girl. Saint Jimmy had
gone to complete the arrangements he had started to make when Sonora
Jack carried her away. There must be no change in their plans. When they
were safe out of the country, she could communicate with her father. Hugh
must come for her at once. She would be waiting for him to-morrow
morning.
With deliberate care, Hugh Edwards folded the letter and returned it to
the envelope.
The Indian was watching him intently.
The man did not appear in any way surprised, elated or disturbed. One
would have said that he had been expecting the letter—had foreseen its
contents, and had already, in his mind, answered it. His manner was that of
one who, having fought and lived through the crisis of a storm,
methodically and wearily takes up again the routine duties of his existence.
Calmly, with a shadowy smile that would have caused Marta to think of
Saint Jimmy, he spoke.
“What is it that you wish to say, Natachee?”
“I, Natachee the Indian, can now pay the debt I owe Hugh Edwards.”
“You have more than paid that debt, Natachee.”
The red man returned haughtily:
“Is the life of Natachee of such little value that it is paid for by the death
of that snake, Sonora Jack, and his companion who stopped the arrow?”
“But for you, Marta would not have escaped from Sonora Jack and the
other outlaws,” returned Edwards.
“But for me, no one would know the woman Hugh Edwards loves,
except as the Pardners’ girl. Hugh Edwards, but for Natachee, would be free
to make her his wife.”
Indicating the letter in his hand, Hugh answered:
“She says here that it need make no difference. She says for me to come,
as if the Mexican had died without speaking, as if you had taken nothing
from Sonora Jack.”
The Indian’s eyes blazed with triumph.
“Good! That is as I, Natachee, wanted it to be. Now the way of my
friend to the great desire of his heart is clear. Listen! When you left so
hurriedly, after hearing the name of the girl’s father, Doctor Burton
wondered at your manner. I told him that now, when the girl was known to
be the daughter of a man of wealth and honorable position, you felt you
could not take her for your wife.”
“That was true enough,” returned Edwards, wondering at the excitement
which the Indian, with all of his assumed composure, could not hide.
“Yes, but I did not tell any one that it was the girl’s father who sent you,
my friend, to prison. No one but Hugh Edwards and Natachee knows that.
No one shall know until you, Donald Payne, are revenged for all that this
man Clinton has made you suffer. When you have trapped this Clinton
coyote—when you have made him pay for your shame—your
imprisonment—your mother’s death—when he has paid for everything your
heart holds against him—then I, Natachee, will have paid my debt to you.”
Hugh Edwards gazed at the Indian, bewildered, amazed, wondering.
“What on earth do you mean, Natachee?”
“Do you not understand? Listen.”
“The girl, who does not know what her father did, will go with you.
Good!—Take her. Let there be a pretense of marriage. Then, when her
shame is accomplished, send her to her father. Let George Clinton, who
made Donald Payne a convict, beg that convict to give his daughter a name
for her children. The shame that he heaped upon your name—the dishonor
that he compelled you to suffer—you will give back to him through his
daughter.”
The white man exclaimed with horror:
“In God’s name stop!”
“Is not the heart of Donald Payne filled with hate for the man who has
filled his life with suffering?”
“Yes, Natachee, I hate George Clinton.”
“But you will not take the revenge that I, Natachee, have planned for
you?”
“No—No—No!”
“The heart of a white man is a strange thing,” returned the Indian. “I,
Natachee, cannot understand.”
The sun was not yet above the mountains, but the sky was glorious with
the beauty of the new day, when Hugh Edwards stood in the doorway of the
Indian’s hut.
Against a sky of liquid gold, melting into the deeper blue above, wreaths
of flaming crimson cloud mists were flung with the careless splendor of the
Artist who paints with the brush of the wind and the colors of light on the
canvas of the heavens. The man bared his head and, with face uplifted,
watched.
He felt the soft breath of the spring on his cheek and caught the perfume
of cedar and pine. He heard the birds singing among the blossoms on the
mountain side. He saw the mighty peaks and crags towering high. He
looked down upon the foothills and mesas and afar over the desert where
gray-blue shadows drifted on a sea of color into the far purple distance. A
squirrel, in a live oak near by, chattered a glad good morning. A buck
stepped from the cover of a manzanita thicket and stood, for a moment,
with antlered head lifted, as if he too sensed the beauty and the meaning of
life. A timid doe came to stand beside her lordly mate. The man, motionless,
held his breath. In a flash they were gone.
Natachee the Indian stood beside his white companion.
Hugh Edwards held out his hand to the red man.
“Good-by, Natachee.”
“You go?” asked the puzzled Indian.
“Yes, you have paid your debt, Natachee.”
The fire of savage exultation flamed in the red man’s eyes.
“Hugh Edwards will take the revenge that I, Natachee, have offered?”
“No.”
The Indian said doubtfully, as if striving for an answer to the thing which
puzzled him so:
“There is something in the white man’s heart that is more than hate?”
“Yes, Natachee. Yesterday I believed that there was nothing left for me
in life but hate. Then you, last night, revealed to me what hate might do,
and I knew the strength of love. I must go now—to the woman who is
waiting for me, down there in the Cañon of Gold.”
But Hugh Edwards, when he told Saint Jimmy that George Clinton was
living, had been mistaken.
The very night that Natachee brought the girl from that place where
Sonora Jack had taken her, Marta’s father died in a Los Angeles hospital. In
the same hour that the Indian and the girl were stealing from the Mexican
house south of the border, the man for whose crime Donald Payne was sent
to prison was dictating a confession. With the last of his strength, he signed
the instrument.
Natachee, when he offered to Hugh Edwards his scheme of revenge, did
not know that at that very moment every newspaper in the land was
heralding the innocence of the escaped convict, Donald Payne. The man
who went down the mountain slopes and ridges toward the Cañon of Gold
that morning did not know that he was even then a free man. The girl who
waited for her lover who had never spoken to her of his love did not know.
But Doctor Burton, when he went to Oracle the evening before to complete
his arrangements for that wedding journey, had received the news.
It was like Saint Jimmy to meet Hugh Edwards on the mountain side that
morning, and to tell him what he had learned before Hugh had come within
sight of the house in the cañon. It was like Saint Jimmy, too, to suggest that
perhaps now Marta need never know, at least not until after they had
returned from their trip abroad.
CHAPTER XXXV
FREEDOM
It was the plan that had been arranged by Saint
Jimmy.
L ATE in the afternoon of that appointed day, an automobile from Tucson

turned off from the Bankhead Highway into the old road that leads to
the Cañada del Oro.
At the point where the road enters the Cañon of Gold, which is as far as
an automobile can go on that ancient trail, Hugh and Marta, with old Thad,
were waiting.
The automobile would take them, without a stop, straight south through
Tucson to Nogales, where they would cross the international boundary line
into Nogales, Mexico. From there, immediately after the wedding
ceremony, Donald Payne and his bride would travel by rail to Mexico City,
from which point in due time they would go to the lands of the old world.
Thad would return to the Cañada del Oro, and would, for a while at least,
make his home with Saint Jimmy and Mother Burton.
It was the plan that had been arranged by Saint Jimmy when they all
believed that it was unsafe for Hugh to make his real name known in the
United States. For Marta’s sake, the original plan was still to be carried out.
When Marta and her husband were safely out of the country and on their
way abroad, Doctor Burton would give the facts to the newspapers. In a few
months the sensational story would cease to be of news interest to the press
and would be forgotten by the public. Then Marta would be told that her
husband’s innocence had been established—that Donald Payne, no longer a
fugitive from prison, was free to return again to his own country.
Saint Jimmy and his mother had said their goodbys at the little home of
the old prospectors and their partnership girl.
From a rocky point on Samaniego Ridge, high above the Cañon of Gold,
Natachee the Indian saw the black moving spot which was the automobile
on the old trail that had been followed by so many peoples, in so many
ages.
Motionless, as a figure of stone, with a face unmoved, the red man
watched.
The automobile stopped.
The dark eyes of the Indian, trained to such distance, could see, as no
white man could have seen, the three figures entering the machine.
The automobile moved away, winding down through the foothills,
crawling cautiously over the ridges, laboring heavily across the sandy
washes, growing smaller and smaller until even to the Indian’s vision it was
lost in the gray-brown plain of the desert. But still Natachee’s gaze held
toward the south where presently he saw a faint cloud of dust rising from
the yellow threadlike line of highway. Then the cloud of dust melted into
the desert air. A moment longer the Indian watched. Then slowly his gaze
swept the many miles that lie between the foot of the Santa Catalinas and
the far horizon.
A puff of air, fragrant with the scent of the desert, stirred the single
feather that drooped from the loosely twisted folds of the Indian’s
headband. In the blue depth of the sky, a wheeling eagle screamed.
Lifting his dark face toward the mountain peaks that towered above his
lonely hut, Natachee the Indian—mystic guardian of the Mine with the Iron
Door—smiled.
THE END
By HAROLD BELL WRIGHT
THAT PRINTER OF UDELL’S

A gripping story of character and action, dealing with
a young man’s fight for more practical Christianity.
THE SHEPHERD OF THE HILLS
The hearts of men and women, their thoughts and acts,
seen in the clear, inspiring atmosphere of the Ozark
region.
THE CALLING OF DAN MATTHEWS
Through experience of people and conditions in a mid-
western town, Dan Matthews learns that a man’s true
ministry is the work in which he serves best.
THE UNCROWNED KING
A beautiful allegory of life, showing that “the Crown
is not the Kingdom, nor is one King because he wears
a Crown.”
THE WINNING OF BARBARA WORTH
Achievements of human enterprise in a charming love
story whose background is an epic of desert
reclamation.
D. APPLETON AND COMPANY

New York London
By HAROLD BELL WRIGHT
HELEN OF THE OLD HOUSE

A great human story of American manhood and
womanhood in the industrial life of to-day.
THE RE-CREATION OF BRIAN KENT
Keen revelation of life’s invisible forces, out of which
come a man’s recovery from desperation, and his
success in life and love.
WHEN A MAN’S A MAN
In the cattle country of Arizona, where a man must be
a man, a stranger from another way of life proves
himself in many stirring experiences.
THE EYES OF THE WORLD
A beautiful love story with the inspiration of Nature
contrasted impressively with a life of materialism.
THEIR YESTERDAYS
A delicate story of life and love and the great
elemental things that rule men from early childhood
onward.
D. APPLETON AND COMPANY

New York London

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Alex Kelly’s internationally renowned TALKABOUT books are a series of practical

Alex Kelly is a speech-language pathologist who specializes in working with

Nancy Tarshis, a speech-language pathologist and special educator with

Debbie Meringolo, a special educator, clinician, and developmental specialist,

TALKABOUT: A Social Communication Skills Package (Second Edition)

TALKABOUT for CHILDREN 1: Developing Self-Awareness and Self-Esteem (Second Edition)

TALKABOUT for CHILDREN 2: Developing Social Skills (Second Edition)

TALKABOUT for CHILDREN 3: Developing Friendship Skills (Second Edition)

TALKABOUT for TEENAGERS: Developing Social and Communication Skills

Edited and with a Foreword by

Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business

© 2020 Alex Kelly

First UK edition published by Speechmark 2007

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

ISBN: 978-1-138-36942-9 (pbk)

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Visit the companion website: www.routledge.com/cw/kelly

Level 1 TALKABOUT The aim of the topics in this section is to improve 27

You can contact Alex through her website: www.alexkelly.biz

You can contact Alex through her website: www.alexkelly.biz

The book you

Level 2 The Way We Talk

You can contact Alex through her website: www.alexkelly.biz

Forms and group cohesion ideas

Who TALKABOUT is aimed at

Summary of the TALKABOUT resources

Resource What it includes Age Particularly suited

TALKABOUT An assessment of social skills All Secondary-aged pupils

TALKABOUT An assessment of self- 16 years Adults with intellectual

TALKABOUT for A screening tool for self- 10–25 Secondary-aged pupils

Resource What it includes Age Particularly suited

TALKABOUT for An assessment of social skills 4–16 Primary-aged pupils in

TALKABOUT for One year’s worth of activities 4–16 Primary-aged pupils in

TALKABOUT Cards Two sets of cards for group All Anyone

TALKABOUT DVD Video clips of inappropriate 7 years Anyone except very

TALKABOUT A set of 16 posters illustrating All Anyone

TALKABOUT Board A board game for children 7 years Anyone

TALKABOUT An assessment of self-esteem 18 years Older children and

The theory behind TALKABOUT

I started my investigations at a college of further education where I was working with

Self-awareness and self-esteem

Non-verbal skills – Body language

– The way we talk

Verbal skills – Conversational skills

Hierarchy of social skills

So, in planning intervention, we can use

3 The way we talk

Planning your intervention

Level 1 TALKABOUT The aim of the topics in this section is to improve 27