wuz a Sioux. I couldn't make no
mistake. Like ez not he wuz a hunter from the village we saw on the
slope below, an' whar one hunter is another may not be fur away."

"Thinking as you do," said Boyd, "and thinking as I do the same way you
do, I think we'd better put out our fire and shift to another part of
the valley."

"That's a lot of 'thinks,'" said Brady, "but it seems to me that you're
both right, and I've no doubt such thoughts are put into our minds to
save our lives. Perhaps it would be best for us to start up the slopes
at once, but if our time is coming tonight it will come and no flight of
ours will alter it."

Nevertheless they took the precaution to stamp out the last coal, and
then moved silently with the animals to another part of the dip. While
they were tethering their horses and mules there in a little glade all
the animals began to tremble violently and it required Will's utmost
efforts to soothe them. The acute ears of Brady detected a low growling
on their right, not far from the base of the cliff.

"Come, Tom," he said to the Little Giant. "You and I will see what it
is, and be sure you're ready with that rifle of yours. You ought to
shoot beautifully in this clear moonlight."

They disappeared among the bushes, but returned in a few minutes,
although the growling had become louder and was continuous. Both men had
lost a little of their ruddiness.

"What was it?" asked Will.

"It wuz your friend, the Sioux warrior who held you in the cliff so
long," replied the Little Giant, shuddering. "Half a dozen big mountain
wolves are quarrelin' 'bout the right place to bury him in. But, anyway,
he's bein' buried, an' mighty fast too."

Will shuddered also, and over and over again. In fact, his nervous
system had been so shaken that it would not recover its full force for a
day, and the others, trained to see all things, noticed it.

"You soothe them animals ag'in, young William," said the Little Giant,
"an' we'll spread the blankets fur our beds here in the bushes."

Bent again showed supreme judgment, as in quieting the fears of the
horses and mules for the second time Will found that renewed strength
flowed back into his own nervous system, and when he returned to the
fireless camp his hand and voice were once more quite steady.

"There is your bed, William," said Brady. "You lie on one blanket, put
the other over you, and also one of the bearskins. It's likely to be a
dry and cold night, but