rly looking over. One was lighting a little
fire and putting grass on it to make a smudge.

Ambrose got his feet under him, and managed after several attempts to
stand upright. He was tall enough to look over the heads of the
Indians.

Stretching before him he saw the valley he had remarked the evening
before, with the streamlet winding like a silver ribbon in a green
flounce.

But what the Indians were looking at were little pillars of smoke which
ascended at intervals all around the edge of the hills, hung for a
moment or two in the motionless air, and disappeared. Ambrose counted
eight besides their own.

Watusk exclaimed in satisfaction, and ordered the fire put out. This,
then, was the explanation of the digging--rifle-pits!

Ambrose marveled at the cunning with which it had all been contrived.
The excavated earth had been carried somewhere to the rear.

Wild-rose scrub had been cut and replanted in the earth around three
sides of the pit, leaving a clear space between the stems for the men
to shoot through, with a screen of the crimson leaves above.

So well had it been done that Ambrose could not distinguish the other
pits from the patches of wild-rose scrub growing naturally on the hills.

Ambrose's heart sank with the apprehension of serious danger. He began
to wonder if he and all the other whites in the country had not
under-rated these red men. Where could Watusk have learned his
tactics? The thing was devilishly planned.

With the cross-fire of two hundred rifles they could mow down an army
if they could get them inside that valley. Each narrow entrance was
covered by a pair of pits. Every part of the bowl was within range of
every pit.

Ambrose feared that the police, in their careless disdain of the
natives, might ride straight into the trap and be lost.

"Watusk, for God's sake, what do you mean to do?" he cried.

Watusk was intensely gratified by the white man's alarm. He smiled
insolently. "Ah!" he said. "You on'erstan' now!"

"You fool!" cried Ambrose. "If you fire on the police you'll be wiped
clean off the earth! The whole power of the government will descend on
your head! There won't be a single Kakisa left to tell the story of
what happened!"

Watusk's face turned ugly. His eyes bolted. "Shut up!" he snarled,
"or I gag you."

Ambrose, bethinking himself that he might use his voice to good purpose
later, clenched his teeth and said no more.

At sunrise a fresh