meat, plenty firewater--"

"You go back!" roared the tollkeeper, swearing, "and go ford the river.
That's good enough for a Digger! The ferry's been taken off, but the
water is not so high."

The old Indian scowled, and the young bucks began a guttural complaint
which he silenced with a gesture and a grunt of command.

"Water is cold, and those," pointing to the sheep, "have passed."

"You go back, I tell you! I hate every filthy brute of you! My best pal
was sent to glory in that funeral fire on Murderer's Bar, and no Indian
will ever get aught from me."

"Me pay," said the Indian leader slowly, "Me pay cayuse, me pay boy."

"No, you won't pay! You'll go back and wade the river like the low
beasts that you are."

The chief began a fierce oration. Longley ran into the tollhouse and
came out with a sawed-off shotgun.

"Now, will you go?" he cried, defiantly.

The Indians were sober, and they went. As they came abreast of the pier
under the bridge the toll-keeper jeered and laughed at them, and pelted
them with rocks.

They looked up with hate, but went stolidly on their way.

With darkness, the roistering at the barbecue became louder. The
Indians' money was gone by this time, and the fun was getting rougher.
The toll-keeper, after a weary day, was dozing beside his candle. He did
not see nor hear the stealthy forms which crept up the bridge. A board
creaked, and he jumped up and swung about, to find himself quickly
overpowered by a dozen lithe redskins.

They robbed the till, then held a palaver as to the disposition of their
prisoner. They finally left him tied with his own new rope to a huge
drift log at the base of the pier, and went back to buy more firewater.

It was a wild night!

John noticed, very late, that the Indians seemed to be having a special
pow-wow of their own on the river bank near the bridge. There was a
great fire, and mad dancing and war whooping. He started toward them.

"Don't go there, pardner," called an old trapper. "Them bucks is crazy
with drink, an' if I knows anything about Injuns, it won't be no safe
place for a white man."

So passed Longley's last chance for his life! His cries for aid were
mingled with the savage whoops of his ferocious enemies. Even the people
living across the river who heard his continued shouts, took them to be
part of the celebration.

Maddened by drink and by the ever mounting excitement of their
incantations, one of the most ghastly deeds ev