rd, but the sentries give no sign.
Despite grief and care, Nature asserts her sway and is fast lulling Lee
to sleep, when, away up on the heights to the northwest, there leaps out
a sudden lurid flash and, a second after, the loud ring of the cavalry
carbine comes echoing down the canyon. Lee springs to his feet and seizes
his rifle. The first shot is quickly followed by a second; the men are
tumbling up from their blankets and, with the instinct of old
campaigners, thrusting cartridges into the opened chambers.

"Keep your men together here, sergeant," is the brief order, and in a
moment more Lee is spurring upward along an old game trail. Just under
the crest he overtakes a sergeant hurrying northward.

"What is it? Who fired?" he asks.

"Morris fired, sir: I don't know why. He is the farthest post up the
bluffs."

Together they reach a young trooper, crouching in the pallid dawn behind
a jagged parapet of rock, and eagerly demanded the cause of the alarm.
The sentry is quivering with excitement.

"An Indian, sir! Not a hundred yards out there! I seen him plain enough
to swear to it. He rose up from behind that point yonder and started out
over the prairie, and I up and fired."

"Did you challenge?"

"No, sir," answers the young soldier, simply. "He was going away. He
couldn't understand me if I had,--leastwise I couldn't 'a understood
him. He ran like a deer the moment I fired, and was out of sight almost
before I could send another shot."

Lee and the sergeant push out along the crest, their arms at "ready,"
their keen eyes searching every dip in the surface. Close to the edge of
the canyon, perhaps a hundred yards away, they come upon a little ledge,
behind which, under the bluff, it is possible for an Indian to steal
unnoticed towards their sentries and to peer into the depths below. Some
one has been here within a few minutes, watching, stretched prone upon
the turf, for Lee finds it dry and almost warm, while all around the
bunch grass is heavy with dew. Little by little as the light grows
warmer in the east and aids them in their search, they can almost trace
the outline of a recumbent human form. Presently the west wind begins to
blow with greater strength, and they note the mass of clouds, gray and
frowning, that is banked against the sky. Out on the prairie not a
moving object can be seen, though the eye can reach a good rifle-shot
away. Down in the darkness of the canyon the watch-fires still smoul