cket and rush up the track a few paces before she was able to
bring the big-bore gun to bear on them.

"Slay them not, Softswan," cried the preacher anxiously, as he tried to
rise and prevent her firing. "We cannot escape them."

He was too late. She had already pressed the trigger, and the roar of
the huge gun was reverberating from cliff to cliff like miniature
thunder; but his cry had not been too late to produce wavering in the
girl's wind, inducing her to take bad aim, so that the handful of slugs
with which the piece had been charged went hissing over the assailants'
heads instead of killing them. The stupendous hissing and noise,
however, had the effect of momentarily arresting the savages, and
inducing each man to seek the shelter of the nearest shrub.

"Com queek," cried Softswan, seizing the preacher's hand. "You be
deaded soon if you not com queek."

Feeling the full force of this remark, the wounded man, exerting all his
strength, arose, and suffered himself to be led into the hut. Passing
quickly out by a door at the back, the preacher and the bride found
themselves on a narrow ledge of rock, from one side of which was the
precipice down which Big Tim had made his perilous descent. Close to
their feet lay a great flat rock or natural slab, two yards beyond which
the ledge terminated in a sheer precipice.

"No escape here," remarked the preacher sadly, as he looked round. "In
my present state I could not venture down such a path even to save my
life. But care not for me, Softswan. If you think you can escape, go
and--"

He stopped, for to his amazement the girl stooped, and with apparent
ease raised the ponderous mass of rock above referred to as though it
had been a slight wooden trap-door, and disclosed a hole large enough
for a man to pass through. The preacher observed that the stone was
hinged on a strong iron bar, which was fixed considerably nearer to one
side of it than the other. Still, this hinge did not account for the
ease with which a mere girl lifted a ponderous mass which two or three
men could not have moved without the aid of levers.

But there was no time to investigate the mystery of the matter, for
another ringing war-whoop told that the Blackfeet, having recovered from
their consternation, had summoned courage to renew the assault.

"Down queek!" said the girl, looking earnestly into her companion's
face, and pointing to the dark hole, where the head of a rude ladder,