in very gravely. "Beeg medicine mak' Indian man
crazy--fool--dance--sing--mak' brave--then keel--queeck!"

"Come along, then, Jerry," said Cameron impatiently. And on they went.
The throb of the drum grew clearer until it seemed that the next turn in
the trail should reveal the camp, while with the drum throb they began
to catch, at first faintly and then more clearly, the monotonous chant
"Hai-yai-kai-yai, Hai-yai-kai-yai," that ever accompanies the Indian
dance. Suddenly the drums ceased altogether and with it the chanting,
and then there arose upon the night silence a low moaning cry that
gradually rose into a long-drawn penetrating wail, almost a scream, made
by a single voice.

Jerry's hand caught Cameron's arm with a convulsive grip.

"What the deuce is that?" asked Cameron.

"Sioux Indian--he mak' dat when he go keel."

Once more the long weird wailing scream pierced the night and, echoing
down the canyon, was repeated a hundred times by the black rocky sides.
Cameron could feel Jerry's hand still quivering on his arm.

"What's up with you, Jerry?" said Cameron impatiently.

"Me hear dat when A'm small boy--me."

Then Cameron remembered that it was Sioux blood that colored the
life-stream in Jerry's veins.

"Oh, pshaw!" said Cameron with gruff impatience. "Come on!" But he was
more shaken than he cared to acknowledge by that weird unearthly cry
and by its all too obvious effect upon the iron nerves of that little
half-breed at his side.

"Dey mak' dat cry when dey go meet Custer long 'go," said Jerry, making
no motion to go forward.

"What are you waiting for?" said Cameron harshly. "Come along, unless
you want to go back."

His words stung the half-breed into action. Cameron could feel him in
the dark jerk his hand away and hear him grit his teeth.

"Bah! You go hell!" he muttered between his clenched teeth.

"That is better," said Cameron cheerfully. "Now we will look in upon
these fire-eaters."

Sharp to the right they turned behind a cliff, and then back almost upon
their trail, still to the right, through a screen of spruce and poplar,
and found themselves in a hole of a rock that lengthened into a tunnel
blacker than the night outside. Pursuing this tunnel some little
distance they became aware of a light that grew as they moved toward
it into a fire set in the middle of a wide cavern. The cavern was of
irregular shape, with high-vaulted roof, open to the sky at the apex and
hung with gli