but
I will say this to you, Little Giant, that we expect you to do the most
tremendous fighting the world has ever seen, we expect you to wipe out
whole bands of Sioux and Blackfeet by yourself while Will and me stand
by and rest, and, after it's all over, we expect you to sit down and
whistle an hour or two, until you soothe us to sleep."

"Then, on them conditions I come in as a full pardner," said Giant Tom,
and he grinned with pleasure, the most amazing grin that Will had ever
seen. It spread slowly across his face, until the great crack seemed to
reach almost to each ear, revealing a splendid set of powerful white
teeth, without a flaw. Above the chasm two large blue eyes glistened and
glowed with delight. It was all so infectious, so contagious that both
Will and Boyd grinned in return. They were not only securing for a
perilous quest a man who was beyond compare, but they were also giving
the most exquisite mental pleasure to a likable human being.

"It shorely does look," said the Little Giant, "ez ef my luck wuz goin'
to hev a turn. At any rate, I'll be with you boys, in the best company
I've had fur years."

"You and the mules rest a day," said Boyd, "and then we'll be off. We'll
keep to the mountains for a while, and then we'll curve back to the
plains, where we'll take up the line laid down on the map, and where the
going is easier. Maybe we can dodge the Sioux."

The Little Giant made his bed under one of the trees, and he slept very
soundly that night, eating prodigiously in the morning. The three were
discussing the advisability of leaving at once or of waiting until the
dusk for departure, when Will, happening to look toward the east, saw
what he took at first to be a tiny cloud in the clear blue sky. He
carried his glasses over his shoulders, and he raised them at once. The
hunter and the Little Giant had noticed his act.

"What is it, Will?" asked Boyd anxiously.

"Smoke! A big puff of it!"

"And it came from the top of that mountain to the east of the valley."

"It rose straight and fast, as if it had been sent up by some human
agency."

"And so it was. It's a signal!"

"Indians!"

"Yes, Will."

"What does it mean?"

"It means 'Attention, watch!' They've got a code almost as complete as
that of our armies when they use the signal flags. Look at that other
crest off to the north. Maybe an answer will come from it."

"There _is_ an answer. I can see it rising now from the very place yo