t
all these cheerful proceedings.

Alfred and his prisoner finally mounted and rode northwest. As soon as
they had scrambled up the precipitous side of the gully, the affair
became a procession, with the stranger in front, and the stranger's
second pony bringing up an obedient rear. Thus the robber was first to
see a band of Sioux that topped a distant rise for a single instant. Of
course, the Sioux saw him, too. He communicated this discovery to
Alfred.

"Well," said Alfred, "they ain't hostile."

"These yere savages is plenty hostile," contradicted the stranger, "and
don't you make no mistake thar. I jest nat'rally lifts that pinto offen
them yisterday," and he jerked his thumb toward the black-and-white pony
in the rear.

"And you camps!" cried Alfred, in pure astonishment. "You must be plumb
locoed!"

"I ain't had no sleep in three nights," explained the other, in apology.

Alfred's opinion of the man rose at once.

"Yo' has plumb nerve to tackle a hold-up under them circumstances," he
observed.

"I sets out to git that thar stage; and I gits her," replied the agent,
doggedly.

The savages appeared on the next rise, barely a half-mile away, and
headed straight for the two men.

"I reckon yere's where you takes a hand," remarked Alfred simply, and,
riding alongside, he released the other's arms by a single slash of his
knife. The man slipped from his horse and stretched his arms wide apart
and up over his head in order to loosen his muscles. Alfred likewise
dismounted. The two, without further parley, tied their horses' noses
close to their front fetlocks, and sat down back to back on the surface
of the prairie. Each was armed with one of the new 44-40 Winchesters,
just out, and with a brace of Colt's revolvers, chambering the
same-sized cartridge as the rifle.

"How you heeled?" inquired Alfred.

The stranger took stock.

"Fifty-two," he replied.

"Seventy for me," vouchsafed Alfred. "I goes plenty organised."

Each man spread a little semicircle of shells in front of him. At the
command of the two, without reloading, were forty-eight shots.

When the Indians had approached to within about four hundred yards of
the white men they paused. Alfred rose and held his hand toward them,
palm outward, in the peace sign. His response was a shot and a chorus of
yells.

"I tells you," commented the hold-up.

Alfred came back and sat down. The savages, one by one, broke away from
the group and began to