gain they set off. An hour was spent here and there, when suddenly
Clemmer uttered a cry.

"Been a struggle hyer, Pawnee. See them footprints?"

"Three people," answered the scout, making an inspection. "A boy, a girl
or a woman, and an Indian. Can they have been Dick, Nellie Winthrop and
Yellow Elk? Hang me if it doesn't look like it."

"Hyer's where the trail leads off," said Clemmer. "And that's the boy's.
Can't see nuthin' o' the gal's."

"That means the Indian carried her off," ejaculated Pawnee Brown. "Let
us follow his trail without delay."

"But the boy's?"

"You follow that, and I'll follow the redskin. If he had the girl I want
to know it."

A few words more and they separated. Pawnee Brown was on his mettle and
followed Yellow Elk's trail with all the keenness of an Indian himself.
In half an hour he had reached the brook. Here he came to a series of
rocks and was forced to come to a halt.

But not for long. Fording the water-course, he began a search which
speedily revealed the trail again, leading to a small river a quarter of
a mile further on.

He followed the river for less than fifty feet, when a number of voices
broke upon his ears.

"I'm sure I saw the redskin on the river, and he had a girl with him,
Ross."

"You must have been dreaming, Tucker. No redskins up here."

"All right, I know what I am talking about."

"I think I saw something, too," said a third voice, that of Skimmy, the
calvary man.

The three calvary men were out on a scouting expedition, to learn if the
boomers were in the vicinity of the river.

Tucker especially was on the lookout for Pawnee Brown, determined to
bring the great scout down and thus win the reward Louis Vorlange had
promised.

The scout listened to the talk of the cavalrymen for fully ten minutes
with great interest.

He had just started to move on, satisfied that it would be of no benefit
to remain longer, when Tucker turned and walked his horse directly
toward the spot where he was concealed.

"A boomer behind the brush!" shouted the cavalryman. "Come, boys, and
take him!"

Immediately there was a rush, and Pawnee Brown was surrounded. He had
his pistol out and in return came the weapons of the trio.

"Well, gentlemen, you seem to want to make me your prisoner," said the
scout, coolly.

"Thet's wot," cried Ross. "Eh, Tucker?"

To make Pawnee Brown a prisoner would be of no personal benefit to him.

"You seem to bear me a grudge," said