hearts' content.

"Yes, that 'ere is the place they call Devil's Pass," said the corporal
in reply to a question from the boy. "You see that it was so wide back
there at the beginning that you couldn't see how wide it was, and it
keeps geting narrower and narrower till it reminds me of the canyon of
the upper Yellowstone."

"How is that?" was the question that came when he paused to take breath.

"So narrow that you could toss a ball from one side to the other, and a
thousand feet from the top to bottom, clean and square, and there are
some places where it is all of a half mile."

"But this don't seem as narrow as that."

"I don't s'pose it is; but don't you notice ahead, yonder, that it ain't
more than a hundred yards broad? Well, it keeps it up for all of two
miles just like that."

"Why do they call it Devil's Pass, corporal?"

"I suppose because, if the Old Boy wanted to gobble up a lot of folks,
that is just the place. The walls on each side are straight up and down,
and several hundred feet high, so that a man can't dodge to the right or
left, unless he has a pair of wings to help him. The only thing he can
do is to go forward and backward, and if he happens to have Injuns in
front and rear, you can understand what a purty muss he would be in.
That, I s'pose, is the reason why it's called the Devil's Pass."

"Do you think they will attack _us_?" asked Ned, in a scared voice.

"I can't say," replied the corporal, striving to banish the expression
of alarm from his face. "If they've got any idea of disturbing us, just
here is where they'll do it. It's the worst place on the route, and if
we can get through to the other side all right, I'll feel as safe as if
we was inside the stockades of your father's fort."

"Have you ever been through here before?"

"Yes; all of half a dozen times."

"Did you ever get into trouble?"

"I never traveled through in all my life without having a scrimmage with
some of the redskins. If you'll take a look round as we drive along,
you'll see the bones of men scattered all along. Some belong to white,
and some to redskins; but they all fell fighting."

"How far ahead is the worst part of the route?"

"We're close upon it now, and I may as well tell you, Ned, that I think
we're going to have a fight."

CHAPTER VIII.

IN DEVIL'S PASS.

By this time Ned Chadmund was pretty well frightened. Corporal Hugg had
said enough to convince him that they were in the great