d be sent, by a round-about trail,
down to the creek; that they should follow it up until they got opposite
to the ledge; and that they should then rouse the sleeping men. They
were also to find the sentry and capture him. The risk was that the
sentry might discover the three first and spoil the chance to take him.
The detail might be dangerous, though with luck it should prove easy.

Brunner was assigned to lead the three. Young Thomas and Kelso were
named by White as the other two, but Brunner, who had been aware of that
duel on the trail, said he preferred the old man to Jim Kelso.

They beat back for a short distance, then, separating, dropped down the
steep hillside to the creek. In open order, they went forward quietly,
slowly; they might come upon 'Kep' Queen's outpost at any turn. Now and
then they came in sight of one another. Each time Brunner saw that the
old man was edging closer to his son. Still there was no word
spoken--only a grim old man's gray eyes were fixed upon a young man's
shifting, over-bright eyes, and the young man moved on, cautiously.

Brunner held close to the creek bank; the old man was twenty yards away
and moving farther out as he approached his son. So they advanced,
abreast, until they came out upon the trail leading up to the ledge.
Then Brunner saw old man Thomas run, with short, noiseless steps, to
young Henry's side and point up the trail. Hidden from both and out of
sight of what had attracted the old man's attention, Brunner yet knew
what was happening. Farther up the trail was the sentry, half asleep in
the chill dawn.

Brunner saw, as he himself came up cautiously, that the old man was
whispering to young Henry. He grasped the boy's arm, half-shoving him
forward and pointing with his rifle. The youngster moved a step, then
turned with a look of utter panic on his face. His father's eyes glared;
a sort of savage anger blazed on his face. From his grip on young
Henry's arm, the old man's hand sprang to the boy's throat. There was
one fierce, terrible shake, a sort of gurgling scream that expressed
terror, and protest, too, but which was scarcely audible to Brunner,
twenty feet away. In the tone of a man enraged to the point of madness,
old man Thomas snapped out:

"Go on, you confounded whelp!"

Young Henry shook himself free, his terror replaced by a sudden,
resentful anger. Fifty yards away the sentry nodded, his back against a
tree and his gun across his lap. Brunner saw