d critters. You treat 'em
well an' they'll treat you well, which is true of all tame animals."

Young Clarke suspected that they were sending him back to steady his own
nerves as well as those of the animals after such a fierce encounter,
but if so he was glad they had the thought. He was willing enough to go.

"Nothing will happen while you're gone," said Boyd cheerfully. "The
Sioux, of course, would try to rush us again if they knew you were away,
but they won't know it."

Will crawled until he came to a curve of the cliff that would hide him
from any hidden Indian marksman, and then he rose to his feet, glad that
he was able to stand upright. He found the horses and mules walking
about uneasily at the ends of their lariats, but a few consoling strokes
from him upon their manes quieted all of them, and, if they found
comfort in his presence, he also found comfort in theirs.

Then he kneeled and drank at the rill, as if he had been parching in a
desert for days.

CHAPTER V

THE WHITE DOME

The tide of cool water restored Will's nerves. After drinking he bathed
his face in it, and then poured it over his neck. Good as he knew water
to be he had never known that it could be so very good. It was in truth
the wine of life. He shook out his thick hair, wet from the rill, and
said triumphantly and aloud to the animals:

"We beat 'em back, Jim Boyd, the Little Giant and me, and we can do it
again. We beat back a whole band of the Sioux nation, and we defy 'em to
come on again. And you predicted it, all six of you! And you predict
that we'll do it a second time, don't you?"

He was in a state of great spiritual exaltation, seeing things that
others might not have seen, and he distinctly saw the six wise heads of
the brutes, dumb but knowing so much, nod in affirmation.

"I accept the omen!" he said, some old scrap of Latin translation coming
into his mind, "and await the future with absolute confidence!"

The horses and mules, stirred at first by the shots, and then not
caring, perhaps, to rest, began to graze. All sign of alarm was gone
from them and Will's heart resumed its normal beat. He listened
attentively, but no sound came from the pass where his comrades, those
deadly sharpshooters, watched. Far overhead the cliffs towered, and over
them a sky darkly blue. He looked at it a little while, and then went
back to the pass.

He had left his glasses with them, and they had not been able to
discover an