ring their friends or they're trying to take us
in the back. I'll guard the front, and you keep your eyes on the hinder
parts, though a jackdaw could scarcely win over these craigs."

A sudden burst of sun came out, while Ringan and I waited uneasily. The
great blue roll of mountain we had left was lit below the mist with a
glory of emerald and gold. Ringan was whistling softly through his
teeth, while I scanned the half moon of rock and matted vines which
made our shelter. There was no sound in the air but the tap of a
woodpecker and the trickling of the little runlets from the wet sides.

The mind in a close watch falls under a spell, so that while the senses
are alert the thoughts are apt to wander. As I have said before, I have
the sharpest sight, and as I watched a point of rock it seemed to move
ever so slightly. I rubbed my eyes and thought it fancy, and a sudden
noise above made me turn my head. It was only a bird, and as I looked
again at the rock it seemed as if a spray of vine had blown athwart it,
which was not there before. I gazed intently, and, following the spray
into the shadow, I saw something liquid and mottled like a toad's skin.
As I stared it flickered and shimmered. 'Twas only the light on a wet
leaf, I told myself; but surely it had not been there before. A sudden
suspicion seized me, and I lifted my pistol and fired.

There was a shudder in the thicket, and an Indian, shot through the
head, rolled into the burn.

At the sound I heard Ringan cry out, and there came a great war-whoop
from the mouth of the ravine. I gave one look, and then turned to my
own business, for as the dead man fell another leaped from the matted
cliffs.

My second pistol missed fire. In crossing the stream I must have damped
the priming.

What happened next is all confusion in my mind. I dodged the fall of
the knife, and struck hard with my pistol butt at the uplifted arm. I
felt no fear, only intense anger at my folly in not having looked
better to my priming. But the shock of the man's charge upset me, and
the next I knew of it we were wrestling on the ground.

I had his right arm by the wrist, but I was no match for him in
suppleness, and in the position in which we lay I could not use the
weight of my shoulders. The most I could do was to keep him from
striking, and to effect that my strength was stretched to its
uttermost. My eyes filmed with weariness, and my breath came in gasps,
for, remember, I had been up