hort distance, where they remained watching us. They had been
feeding on the body of Dio's horse, utterly indifferent to the venom
with which the flesh was impregnated. We kept to windward of it, and
directly we had passed the foul birds flew back to their banquet. This
showed us that the guide had led us aright, and that we could trust him.
Losing patience, I entreated the sergeant to move on faster, reminding
him that even should our friends not be attacked by the Indians, they
were certainly suffering from want of water. He inquired how far off I
calculated we should find the train.

"From fourteen to twenty miles," I answered, "though, as I hope that
they may have been able to move on, perhaps they may be still nearer."

He still hesitated, but Mr Tidey joining his entreaties to mine, he put
his horse into a gallop, ordering his men to advance. We now moved
forward at as fast a rate as I could desire, the guide keeping his eye
on the ground. Mile after mile of the level prairie was quickly
covered, we in the mean time looking out for the plumed heads of any
redskins which might show themselves above the horizon. Noon was
approaching. I saw the guide attentively examining the ground.

"Indians have passed this way, but they have swept round again, off to
the southward. It would take us much out of our way to follow up their
trail, and I think it likely that we shall fall in with it again."

"I hope not," I remarked; "for if so, they may discover our train."

He shrugged his shoulders and said nothing. The ground had now become
more uneven than heretofore. Before us rose an undulating hill of no
great elevation, but of sufficient height to prevent us from seeing any
distance to the eastward, and we had to rein in our horses as we mounted
it. On reaching the top, the sergeant gave the order to halt, unslung
his telescope, and swept the horizon from north to south.

"There's the train," he exclaimed, "coming this way, about three miles
off." Directly afterwards he added, "and there to the southward I see a
troop of mounted Indians; there must be a hundred or more of them. They
have discovered the train, and are galloping towards it as fast as their
horses can go, hoping, I doubt not, to gain an easy victory."

Borrowing the Dominie's glass, I took a look through it, when to my
dismay I perceived that the Indians were much nearer the train than we
were, and might have time to swoop down upon it and be