r.

Ned climbed up to an elevated position and took an observation--his
purpose, after learning whether any present danger threatened, being to
learn the direction it was necessary to follow in order to reach Fort
Havens.

"Corporal Hugg told me that after we reached Devil's Pass, it was in a
straight line West. The trail winds in and out, as it has to do, but all
one had to do was to dig ahead, and he would be sure to come out right
in the end--that is, if the Indians and wild animals would only let him.
Well, right yonder rose the sun," he continued, very carefully
continuing his observation. "That must be the east, and all I have to do
is to keep that at my back until it gets over my head and wears round to
the front. So off we go."

There was one favorable accompaniment of this first thoughtful effort to
reach home. The valley-like depression that had caught his eye upon
rising ran precisely in the direction to be desired--due east and
west--so that he had the best facility in the world for getting through
the mountains. Still another favorable augury was that the general
direction pursued by the Apaches was the same, and the fact was, there
was very little still intervening between him and the open prairie
beyond. Should his progress remain uninterrupted through the day, by
nightfall he would be close to the prairie, which stretched away so many
miles in the direction of the frontier post.

"I don't think it's as much as two hundred miles," he said, as he
started off at a rapid walk. "I can make thirty miles a day, so that I
will be there at the end of a week, if nothing unexpected gets in the
way. Won't father be surprised when he sees me walk up, and won't I be
surprised if I manage to do it, also!"

CHAPTER XVII.

A MYSTERIOUS CAMP FIRE.

For a couple of hours young Chadmund had difficulty in traveling.
Despite the fact that he was in a sort of valley, with towering peaks
and bluffs upon either hand, a great many boulders and obstructions
obtruded themselves in his path, and he did some climbing, clambering,
and jumping that would have reflected no discredit upon a mountain goat.
The forenoon was about half gone, and he was felicitating himself upon
the excellent progress he was making, when he was brought up all
standing by finding himself upon the bank of a mountain stream, which
crossed his route exactly at right angles, issuing from the mountains on
the left with a rush and roar and pouring