he trapper coughed a good deal, and sneezed once
or twice, as if he had a bad cold.

"Can't you keep your throat and nose quieter?" said the chief, sternly.

"Well, p'r'aps I might," replied Drake, emitting a highly suppressed
cough at the moment, "but I've got a queer throat just now. The least
thing affects it."

After consultation with the principal men of his band, Stalker
determined to act on Drake's advice, and in a few minutes the trapper
was guiding them over the hills in a state of supreme satisfaction,
despite his bonds, for had he not obtained the power to make the robbers
encamp on a spot which the Indians could not avoid passing on their way
to the rescue, and had he not established a sort of right to emit sounds
which would make his friends aware of his exact position, and thus bring
both parties into collision before daybreak, which could not have been
the case if the robbers had remained in the encampment where he found
them?

Turn we now to Leaping Buck and Tolly Trevor. Need it be said that
these intelligent lads did not, as the saying is, allow grass to grow
under their feet? The former went over the hills at a pace and in a
manner that fully justified his title; and the latter followed with as
much vigour and resolution, if not as much agility, as his friend.

In a wonderfully short space of time, considering the distance, they
burst upon the Indian village, and aroused it with the startling news.

Warfare in those regions was not the cumbrous and slow affair that it is
in civilised places. There was no commissariat, no ammunition wagons,
no baggage, no camp-followers to hamper the line of march. In five or
ten minutes after the alarm was given about two hundred Indian braves
marched out from the camp in a column which may be described as
one-deep--i.e. one following the other--and took their rapid way up the
mountain sides, led by Unaco in person. Next to him marched Paul Bevan,
who was followed in succession by Fred Westly, Paddy Flinders, Leaping
Buck, and Tolly.

For some time the long line could be seen by the Rose of Oregon passing
swiftly up the mountain-side. Then, as distance united the individuals,
as it were, to each other, it assumed the form of a mighty snake
crawling _slowly_ along. By degrees it crawled over the nearest ridge
and disappeared, after which Betty went to discuss the situation with
Unaco's old mother.

It was near midnight when the robber-band encamped in