placement of the burning wood that the light flared up
and penetrated with its former vigor beyond the tree which sheltered the
sentinel.

Jack was as immovable as a statue, his weapon grasped in both hands,
when this sudden brightening occurred. He was peering out among the dark
trees, in the effort to identify the danger, when he saw the
unmistakable figure of an Indian, hardly twenty feet away.

The buck had entered the grove with the silence of a shadow, and was
making his way to the camp-fire, when betrayed in this singular manner
to the watcher. In the reflection of the firelight, his naturally
hideous countenance was repulsive to the last degree. The features were
irregular, with prominent cheek-bones, a huge nose, and a retreating
chin. Ugly as nature had made him, he had intensified it himself by
daubing black, red and white paint in splashes over the front of his
countenance. His coarse, black hair dangled loosely about his shoulders,
and a single stained eagle's feather protruded from the crown. It was
gathered back of the neck by a thong of some sort, so as to prevent the
hair getting in his eyes when there was such imminent need for their
use.

The chest was bare to the waist, and was also fantastically painted. In
the girdle which encircled his waist was thrust a knife, whose handle
protruded, while the leggings and moccasins were gayly ornamented and
fringed. He held a formidable rifle in his right hand, in a trailing
position, and was leaning well forward, with his body bent, as he drew
near the camp with that stoical patience which the American race shows
in the most trying crises. If necessary, he would continue this cautious
advance for hours without showing haste, for it is often that his people
circumvent and overthrow an enemy by their incomparable caution and
care.

One peculiar feature of the unexpected flaring-up of the light was that
its strongest force impinged directly upon the painted face of the
Indian, which was seen as plainly by Jack Dudley as if the sun were
shining. The youth felt that he could not forget that countenance if he
saw it a hundred years afterward.

Had Jack followed the instruction of their guide he would have leveled
his Winchester and shot the Indian dead in his tracks. The fellow was
stealing into camp in such a manner that there could be no doubt the
least crime he meant to commit was to steal. No ranchman or hunter would
hesitate a moment, under the circumstanc