going to
get him anyway, dead or alive, and we don't much care which. Tell him
that he is not to go nearer than ten yards to the cabin, that we've got
him covered, and if he makes any break it will be his last one."

Alec translated this and Pierre nodded. Then he walked forward through
the thicket into the open, at Alec's command coming to a halt some
thirty feet from the cabin door, where he hailed the Indian in the
latter's own tongue. There was a muffled reply and after some delay the
cabin door was opened a crack and a rifle barrel thrust through. Then
followed a heated parley in the Indian tongue, of which Alec understood
enough to gather the substance.

"He's laying it on thick," he chuckled. "Says that the sheriff and
deputies are here and have got the camp surrounded, and that unless he
comes out they'll shoot him on sight. The Injun has passed him the lie.
He's mockin' Pierre for being caught by a couple of make-believe
trappers--ye ken that's you and me, Pat--and a lot of infants. He says
he hasn't got the black fox and disna know anything about it. Pierre is
giving him a beautiful tongue-lashing and calling him everything bad
this side of purgatory. 'Tis a shame ye dinna understand a little of the
lingo, Pat. Ha! The red says he'll shoot on sight and is warning Pierre
to get back before he takes a pot shot at him, and by the saints I
believe he means it!"

As a matter of fact at this point they saw the rifle barrel raised.
Pierre abruptly turned and without once looking back rejoined the two
men in the thicket. He was in a towering rage and spat out French
invectives at a rate to defy description. He reported the result of his
mission, stating his opinion that the Indian could hold out
indefinitely, as there was a plentiful supply of grub in the cabin and
enough fire-wood to keep him from freezing for longer than his
besiegers would care to stay.

"Will he shoot, do you think, if we rush the cabin?" asked Pat
meditatively.

As if in reply the rifle at the cabin door spat fire and a bullet
whistled through the thicket so close to Pat that instinctively he
ducked. He had carelessly exposed himself to the view of the outlaw.
Almost instantly Alec's rifle replied and a splinter flew from the
door-frame.

"That will teach him that 'tis no make-believe shooter out here!" he
growled.

The door still remained open a crack, evidently to allow the inmate to
observe what was going on in front, the only vulne