n pick him off. Who are our best shots on this
front?" and eagerly he scanned the few faces near him. "Webber's tiptop
and good for anything under five hundred yards when he isn't excited,
and Stoltz, he's a keen, cool one. No! not you, Hogan," laughed the
commander, as a freckled faced veteran popped his head up over a nearby
parapet of sand, and grinned his desire to be included.

"I've never seen the time you could hit what you aimed at. Slip out of
that hole and find Webber and tell him to come here--and you take his
burrow." Whereupon Hogan, grinning rueful acquiescence in his
commander's criticism, slid backwards into the stream bed and, followed
by the chaff of the three or four comrades near enough to catch the
words, went crouching from post to post in search of the desired
marksman.

"You used to be pretty sure with the carbine in the Tonto Basin when we
were after Apaches, sergeant," continued Ray, again peering through the
glasses. "I'm mistaken in this fellow if he doesn't ride well within
range, and we must make an example of him. I want four first class shots
to single him out."

"The lieutenant can beat the best I ever did, sir," said Winsor, with a
lift of the hand toward the hat brim, as though in apology, for Field,
silent throughout the brief conference, had half risen on his hands and
knees and was edging over to the left, apparently seeking to reach the
shelter of a little hummock close to the bank.

"Why, surely, Field," was the quick reply, as Ray turned toward his
junior. "That will make it complete."

[Illustration: "WITH ONE MAGNIFICENT RED ARM UPLIFTED."]

But a frantic burst of yells and war whoops out at the front put sudden
stop to the words. The throng of warriors that had pressed so close
about Stabber and the opposing orator seemed all in an instant to split
asunder, and with trailing war bonnet and followed by only two or three
of his braves, the former lashed his way westward and swept angrily out
of the ruck and went circling away toward the crest, while, with loud
acclamation, brandishing shield and lance and rifle in superb barbaric
tableau, the warriors lined up in front of the victorious young leader
who, sitting high in his stirrups, with one magnificent red arm
uplifted, began shouting in the sonorous tongue of the Sioux some urgent
instructions. Down from the distant crest came other braves as though to
meet and ask Stabber explanation of his strange quitting the field.