with
me--now--and if you make any attempt to rouse your friends, you'll have
a chance to learn something about the other world at first hand a few
seconds afterward."

Clarke saw that it was not an idle threat. The American meant what he
said, and he hurriedly put a few things together and made them into a
pack. Then he turned to Harding with a gesture of ironical resignation.

"I'm ready."

The Indian laid a firm hand on his arm, and Harding took out his pistol
and extinguished the lamp.

"Your interest in keeping quiet is as strong as mine," he sternly
reminded Clarke.

He set his teeth as they passed a tepee at a few yards' distance. He
could see the dark gap of the doorway, and had a nervous fancy that
eyes were following his movements; for now that he had succeeded in the
more difficult part of his errand, he was conscious of strain. Indeed,
he feared that he might grow limp with the reaction; and the danger was
not yet over. Unless they reached camp in the next few days, he
thought Blake would die, and the journey was a long and arduous one.
Still, he was determined that if disaster overtook him, the plotter who
had betrayed them should not escape. Harding was a respecter of law
and social conventions; but now, under heavy stress, he had suddenly
become primitive.

They approached the only remaining tepee. The tension on Harding's
nerves grew severe. As the Indian, holding tightly to their prisoner's
arm, picked his way noiselessly past the open flap, Clarke made a queer
noise--half cough, half sneeze--very low, but loud enough to be heard
by any one in the tent. Like a flash, Harding threw up his pistol,
ready for use. As he did so, his foot tripped on a broken bottle lying
in front of the dark entrance. The pistol did not go off, but Harding,
trying wildly to regain his balance, fell with a crash against the
tepee.

CHAPTER XII

THE FEVER PATIENT

When Harding scrambled to his feet, with his pistol still aimed, Clarke
laughed.

"You're not only very rash--and very clumsy--but you're lucky. That's
the only vacant tepee in the whole village. And my friends don't seem
to have heard you."

They moved on very quickly and cautiously, and when they reached the
thick willow bluff, where they were comparatively safe, Harding felt
easier.

It was noon when they stumbled into camp, Harding ragged and exhausted,
and Clarke limping after him in an even more pitiable state. The
doctor h