t had continued a minute or so.
"I s'pose Tom and Dick would laugh at me if they knew how I acted: but I
don't believe father would like to have me fight that way. Anyhow, my
conscience don't, so I won't."

CHAPTER XXIII.

THE DEATH SHOT.

It took Ned about a minute to reach his merciful conclusion and to lower
the hammer of his gun. This done, he looked out to see how the Indian
was getting along. To his amazement nothing was seen of him. He had
vanished as suddenly as if the ground had opened and swallowed him up.
Wondering what it all could mean, the boy rose to his feet, and peered
out, parting the bushes still more and advancing a little from his
concealment. The ground was quite level, covered here and there with
boulders and a scrubby undergrowth, but there was nothing to be seen of
the warrior. During the second or two occupied in lowering the hammer of
his rifle, the Apache had disappeared, flashing out, so to speak, into
nothingness.

"That's mighty queer," reflected Ned, as he resumed his seat under the
bushes. "I know those redskins are pretty lively, but I didn't think
they could get up and leave as fast as that."

There was something in the manner of this thing which alarmed him. The
Apache, when last seen, was advancing carefully in the direction taken
by the scouts. Why this sudden diversion? What did it mean but that the
redskin had made an important discovery, and what could that discovery
be but that he was threatened by danger from the rear? Such being the
case, it followed that the peril had been transferred from one to the
other. Instead of the lad threatening the Indian it was _vice versa_.

"I bet he'll be back here," was the conclusion of our hero, as he once
more raised the hammer of his gun. "He must have heard me when I moved
the bushes, and he'll be trying some of his tricks upon me."

He concluded that if the Indian made him a visit it would be from
another direction, and so he shifted his position somewhat, managing to
face the other way, while he kept all his senses on the _qui vive_ for
the hostile visit which he was confident would not be long delayed. At
the same time he had a strong hope that the scouts would return in time
to prevent any such encounter as he pictured in his own mind, and which
he thoroughly dreaded.

In his excited mental condition it was impossible to judge accurately of
the passage of time, but it seemed to him that he had been in waiting
fully fi