dismissed
anxiety from his mind and lay quite still, seeking sleep.

The camp was now quiet and the fire was sinking rapidly. Sentinels
walked on every side, but Will could not see them from where he lay. A
light wind blowing down from the mountains moaned through the thin
forest. Clouds came up from the west, blotting out the horizon and
making the sky a curving dome of blackness. Young William Clarke felt
that it was good to have comrades in the immense desolation, and it
strengthened his spirit to see the soldiers rolled in their blankets,
their feet to the dying coals.

Yet his trouble about the future came back. He and Boyd were in truth
and reality prisoners. Captain Kenyon was friendly and kind, but he
would not let them go on, because the Sioux and Cheyennes had barred all
the trails and the formidable Red Cloud had given a warning that could
not be ignored. Making another effort, he dismissed the thought a second
time and just as the last coals were fading into the common blackness he
fell asleep.

He was awakened late in the night by a hand pushing gently but
insistently against his shoulder. He was about to sit up abruptly, but
the voice of Boyd whispered in his ear:

"Be very careful! Make no noise! Release yourself from your blanket and
then do what I say!"

The hand fell away from his shoulder, and, moving his head a little,
Clarke looked carefully over the camp. The coals where the fire had been
were cold and dead, and no light shone there. The figures of the
sleeping soldiers were dim in the dusk, but evidently they slept
soundly, as not one of them stirred. He heard the regular breathing of
those nearest to him, and the light step of the sentinel just beyond a
clump of dwarf pines.

"Sit up now," whispered Boyd, "and when the sentinel passes a little
farther away we'll creep from the camp. Be sure you don't step on a
stick or trip over anything. Keep close behind me. The night's as black
as pitch, and it's our one chance to escape from friends who are too
hospitable."

Will saw the hunter slowly rise to a stooping position, and he did
likewise. Then when the sound of the sentinel's step was lost at the far
end of his beat, Boyd walked swiftly away from the camp and Will
followed on his trail. The lad glanced back once, and saw that the dim
figures by the dead fire did not stir. Weary and with the soothing wind
blowing over them, they slept heavily. It was evident that the two who
would go thei