ong. Well, it might be worse, I suppose.
They will hardly come back to-night, and I guess we can get a little
rest when I picket these animals out again. We got off pretty lucky, I
take it, for there was sure a big bunch of them."

"Lucky?" cried Blake. "I should say not. Look here!" and he pointed to
the upset pile of boxes and bales, only a few of which were now left.
"We have had the worst kind of bad luck!"

"How's that?" demanded Joe, hurrying to the side of his chum. The fire
was brighter now. "What did they take?"

"Our reels of exposed film, for one thing!" cried Blake.

"What! Not our prize Indian pictures?" gasped Joe.

"That's what they did, Joe! Every one of those films we worked so hard
to get is gone!"

"But what could the Indians want with them?" asked Joe. "They don't
know how to develop 'em, and, even if they did, they would be of no use.
They can't know what they are, but if the least ray of light gets into
the boxes it means that the films are ruined!"

"That's right," assented Blake, hopelessly. "What can we do?"

"They probably didn't know they were taking your films, boys," spoke
Hank, who had finished making fast the horses. "They very likely thought
the boxes held some new kind of food, and they just grabbed up anything
they could get their hands on. I reckon the beggars are nearly starving,
and that's what made 'em so bold. You'll notice they didn't once fire at
us--only up in the air. They just wanted to scare us."

"And they took our films, thinking they were something good to eat,"
murmured Blake.

"Yes. I'm not saying, though, that they didn't hope to stampede the
animals; but they went wrong on that calculation, if they had it in
mind."

"They have our films," continued Joe, in a sort of daze, so suddenly had
the events of the last half-hour occurred. "What can we do?"

"Chase after 'em and get our stuff back!" exclaimed Blake, quickly. "I'm
not going to stand that loss. They can have the grub if they want it,
but I'm going to get back those films that we went to such trouble, and
so much danger, to snap."

"But how are you going to do it?" asked Joe.

"Start in pursuit!" cried his chum with energy. "Come on, Hank, you can
follow an Indian trail; can't you?"

"I sure can, when it's as broad as the one they'll be likely to leave.
But not now."

"Why not?" asked Blake.

For answer the cowboy guide waved his hand toward the darkness all
about. There seemed to be a haze ov