. The glow of the flame showed the
countenance of the Comanche plainly. His features were repellent, the
nose being Roman in form, while the cheek-bones were protuberant and the
chin retreating. His long black hair dangled about his shoulders, and
was parted, as is the custom among his people, in the middle. The face
was rendered more repulsive by the stripes and splashes of yellow,
white, and red paint, which not only covered it from the top of the
forehead to the neck, but was mixed in the coarse hair, a portion of
whose ends rested on the roof, as well as over his back.

As he blew, his cheeks expanded, his thin lips took the form of the
letter O, fringed with radiating wrinkles around the edges, and the
black eyes seemed to glow with a light like that of the fire itself, so
great was his earnestness in his work.

No country boy accustomed to get up on cold mornings and build the
family fires could have done his work better. He saw that while the
sticks which were burning, and which he continued to feed and fan, were
rapidly consuming and growing, they were eating into the dry roof on
which they rested. They had already burned a considerable cavity, which
gleamed like a living coal, and it would not take long before a hold
would be secured that would throw the whole structure into a blaze.

Dinah stood for several seconds gazing on the picture, as though she
doubted the evidence of her own eyes. It seemed impossible that such a
cruel plot should have progressed thus far without being thwarted. But
the next moment her chest heaved with indignation, as she reflected that
the red man stretched out before her was the very one that had tried to
enter her apartment, and being frustrated by her watchfulness in that
design, he was now endeavoring to burn them all to death.

The fact that the Comanche never dreamed of interruption caused him to
withdraw his attention from everything except the business before him,
and he continued blowing and feeding the growing flames with all the
care and skill at his command. His wicked heart was swelling with
exultation when--

Suddenly an object descended upon the flames like the scuttle-door
itself, which might be supposed to have been wrenched from its hinges
and slammed down on the fire, quenching it as utterly and completely as
if it were submerged in a mountain torrent.

_That_ was the foot of Dinah.

Next, as the dumfounded warrior attempted to leap to his feet, something
f