tened our tongues, scrupulously turn about,
wringing the most from each brief sip as if testing the bouquet of
exquisite wine. Came a time when we regretted this frugalness; but just
now there persisted within us, I suppose, that germ of hope which seems to
be nourished by the soul.

The Sioux had counciled and decided. They faced us, in manner determined.
We waited, tense and watchful. Without even a premonitory shout a pony
bolted for us, from their huddle. He bore two riders, naked to the sun,
save for breech clouts. They charged straight in, and at her mystified,
alarmed murmur I was holding on them as best I could, finger crooked
against trigger, coaxing it, praying for luck, when the rear rider dropped
to the ground, bounded briefly and dived headlong, worming into a little
hollow of the sand.

He lay half concealed; the pony had wheeled to a shrill, jubilant chorus;
his remaining rider lashed him in retreat, leaving the first digging
lustily with hand and knife.

That was the system, then: an approach by rushes.

"We mustn't permit it," she breathed. "We must rout him out--we must keep
them all out or they'll get where they can pick you off. Can you reach
him?"

"I'll try," said I.

The tawny figure, prone upon the tawny sand, was just visible, lean and
snakish, slightly oscillating as it worked. And I took careful aim, and
fired, and saw the spurt from the bullet.

"A little lower--oh, just a little lower," she pleaded.

The same courier was in leash, posted to bring another fellow; all the
Sioux were gazing, statuesque, to analyze my marksmanship. And I fired
again--"Too low," she muttered--and quickly, with a curse, again.

She cried out joyfully. The snake had flopped from its hollow, plunged at
full length aside; had started to crawl, writhing, dragging its hinder
parts. But with a swoop the pony arrived before we were noting; the
recruit plumped into the hollow; and bending over in his swift circle the
courier snatched the snake from the ground; sped back with him.

The Sioux seized upon the moment of stress. They cavorted, scouring hither
and thither, yelling, shooting, and once more our battered haven seethed
with the hum and hiss and rebound of lead and shaft. That, and my
eagerness, told. The fellow in the foreground burrowed cleverly; he
submerged farther and farther, by rapid inches. I fired twice--we could
not see that I had even inconvenienced him. My Lady clutched my revolver
arm.

"N