of the latter were
now relieved, and the wary Stanley, riding with some reserve speed,
held his rifle ready for a stern shot should one become necessary. He
found himself riding between two almost perpendicular walls washed by
the same granite gravel into which they had plunged on the start, but
with the course again turning, to his surprise, to the east. Once,
Stanley checked the flight long enough to stop and listen, but the two
heard the active Indians clattering down the canyon after them, and
rode on and on.

As they could see by the lengthening shadow on the mountain-sides far
above them, the sun was setting.

"Cheer up," cried Stanley, who had put his companion ahead of him.
"We've got the best of them. All we need is open country."

He did not mention the chances of disaster, which were that they might
encounter an obstacle that would leave them at bay before their
tireless pursuers. Mile after mile they galloped without halting again
to see whether they were being chased. Indeed, no distance seemed too
considerable to put between them and the active war-paint in the
saddles behind.

A new turn in the canyon now revealed a wide valley opening between
the hills before them. Far below, golden in the light of the setting
sun, they saw the great eastern slope of the Black Hills spreading out
upon a beautiful plain.

Stanley swung his hat from his head with an exulting cry, and Bucks,
without quite understanding why, but assuming it the right thing to
do, yelled his loudest. On and on they rode, down a broad, spreading
ridge that led without a break from the tortuous hills behind them
into the open country far below. Stanley put full ten miles between
himself and the canyon they had ridden out of before he checked his
speed. The Indians had completely disappeared and, disappointed in
their venture, had no doubt ridden back to their fastnesses to wait
for other unwary white men. Stanley chose a little draw with good
water and grass, and night was just falling as they picketed their
exhausted horses and stretched themselves, utterly used up, on the
grass.

"We are safe until morning, anyway," announced Stanley as he threw
himself down. "And this Indian chase may be the luckiest thing that
has ever happened to me in the troublesome course of an unlucky life.

"You don't understand," continued the engineer, wiping the sweat and
dust from his tired face. Bucks admitted that he did not.

"No matter," returned h