anaged to crowd a little ahead. The horses were then put to a dead run
and the final rush made for Hurricane Hill, the last refuge for which
the fugitives could flee, seeing which, the Indians converged toward
them, and made every effort to shut them off.

Although the hunters had apparently used their utmost endeavors up to
this time, they had husbanded the strength of their animals so cleverly
that their pursuers themselves were deceived, and when they expected to
interpose themselves directly across the path, they beheld them flying
like a whirlwind toward the rocks.

The few hundred yards remaining between the latter and Hurricane Hill
were passed in a few seconds by the fleet-footed mustangs. Ned was
fairly dazed by the bewildering rush of events, and hardly able to keep
track of their order. He saw the hurrying warriors directly behind them,
and the rough, cragged mass of rocks in front. The next moment he was
off the mustang. The scouts had checked their beasts at the same instant
at the base of Hurricane Hill, and, leaping to the ground, skurried up
the steep incline by which its surface was reached. The feet of the lad
did not touch the earth. Dick, who was slightly in advance, carried him
under his arm as if he were an infant snatched up in haste, and the men
bounded toward the top of the hill, the whole howling horde at their
heels.

Hurricane Hill, it should be stated, was a pile of rocks about one
hundred feet in diameter, with half that height. On one side a narrow
path led upward at an angle of forty-five degrees, and, as it permitted
only one to pass at a time, the place, with a few defenders, was
impregnable against almost any force. This path upward was filled with
loose, rattling stones, which sometimes made one's foothold treacherous,
and it also made several curious turns, so that, after ascending a rod
or so, one was shut out from the view of those upon the ground below.

The very instant this point was reached Dick Morris dropped the lad and
exclaimed:

"Now run like thunder, and don't stop till you reach the top."

Then, wheeling about, he leaped back several paces to the assistance of
Tom, who was defending the pass like a second Leonidas against the
swarming warriors.

A huge, stalwart redskin, who probably believed his strength to be
superior to that of the scouts, advanced boldly and seized him, with the
evident purpose of drawing him down among the others and making him a
prisoner in