Indian chief was safe within the territorial reservation allotted to him
and his tribe.

As Yellow Elk shifted his fair burden, Nellie Winthrop's eyes opened and
she started up in alarm.

"Oh, you beast! Let me go!" she screamed faintly. She was about to say
more, but Yellow Elk clapped a dirty hand over her mouth and silenced
her.

"No speak more," he muttered in his broken English. "White girl speak
too much."

"But--but where are you taking me? This is not the boomers' camp."

"We come to camp soon--girl in too much hurry," rejoined the wily
redskin.

"I was told the camp was but a short distance out of town."

"Camp he move. Pawnee Brown not safe near big town," went on Yellow Elk.

"You're a good one for fairy tales," was the boomer's silent comment. He
had withdrawn to the shelter of the thick brush and sat his steed like a
statue, while his pistol was ready for use, with his forefinger upon the
trigger.

"But--but--what happened to me?" went on Nellie, struggling to sit up,
while Yellow Elk held her back.

"White girl lose breath and shut eyes," was the answer, meaning that
Nellie had fainted. "No more fight--Yellow Elk no hurt her."

"I will go no further with you--I do not believe your story!" cried
Nellie. "Let me down."

At these words the face of the Indian chief grew dark, and he muttered
several words in his own language which Nellie did not understand, but
which Pawnee Brown made out to be that the White Bird was too sweet to
be lost so easily, he must take her to his cave in the mountains.

"Will you?" murmured Pawnee Brown. "Well, maybe, but not if I know it."

The mentioning of a cave in the mountains made Pawnee Brown curious. Did
Yellow Elk have such a hiding place? Where was it located, and was the
Indian chief its only user?

"Perhaps some more of these reds have broken loose," he thought. "I
would like to investigate. Who knows but what the cavalrymen are after
them and not the boomers, as Dan Gilbert imagined."

A brief consideration of the subject and his mind was made up. So long
as the Indian did not offer positive harm to Nellie Winthrop he would
not expose himself, but follow on behind, in hope of locating the cave
and learning more of Yellow Elk's intended movements.

"Let me go, I say!" cried Nellie, but the Indian chief merely shook his
head.

"White girl be no fool. Indian friend; no hurt one hair of her head.
Soon we be in camp and she will see what a friend Yel