ite up to the hut but you
can git near enough, at a place where there's a Injin' friend o' mine
as'll take care of ye."

The agent agreed, and thus it came to pass that at the time of which we
now write, Little Tim was doing his best to catch a live bear, but, not
liking to be laughed at even by his son in the event of failure, he had
led him and his bride to suppose that he had merely gone out hunting in
the usual way.

It was on this expedition that Little Tim had set forth when Whitewing
was expected to arrive at Tim's Folly--as the little hut or fortress had
come to be named--and it was the anxiety of his friends and kindred at
his prolonged absence which resulted, as we have seen, in the formation
and departure of a search expedition.

CHAPTER NINE.

A DARING EXPLOIT.

To practised woodsmen like Whitewing and Big Tim it was as easy to
follow the track of Little Tim as if his steps had been taken through
newly-fallen snow, although very few and slight were the marks left on
the green moss and rugged ground over which the hunter had passed.

Six picked Indians accompanied the prairie chief, and these marched in
single file, each treading in the footsteps of the man in front with the
utmost care.

At first the party maintained absolute silence. Their way lay for some
distance along the margin of the brawling stream which drained the gorge
at the entrance of which Tim's Folly stood. The scenery around them was
wild and savage in the extreme, for the higher they ascended, the
narrower became the gorge, and the masses of rock which had fallen from
the frowning cliffs on either side had strewn the lower ground with
shapeless blocks, and so impeded the natural flow of the little stream
that it became, as it were, a tormented and foaming cataract.

At the head of the gorge the party came to a pass or height of land,
through which they went with caution, for, although no footsteps of man
had thus far been detected by their keen eyes save those of Little Tim,
it was not beyond the bounds of possibility that foes might be lurking
on the other side of the pass. No one, however, was discovered, and
when they emerged at the other end of the pass it was plain that, as Big
Tim remarked, the coast was clear, for from their commanding position
they could see an immeasurable distance in front of them, over an
unencumbered stretch of land.

The view from this point was indeed stupendous. The vision seemed to
range n