stant view of the Indian as a
wronged individual often came into violent contact with another view of
him near at hand, seeking to inflict a death with hideous pain.

The night did not darken as it wore on, still starred brilliantly and
lighted by a full, silver moon, which seemed to Will on these lone
plains of the great West to have a size and splendor that he had never
noticed in the East. He and the Little Giant now faced the north, while
Boyd and Brady, of the Biblical voice and speech, looked toward the
south. All of them, when they gazed that way, could see the plain from
which the force, intending to attract their attention by shouting and
yelling, had retreated. But they knew the danger was still to be
apprehended from the cottonwoods, and despite the long stillness they
never ceased to watch with every faculty they could bring to bear.

The dip in which the horses and mules stood was only a short distance
from the little fortification and unless the Sioux in attacking came
very near their bullets were likely to pass over the heads of the
animals. The four, resolved not to abandon the horses and mules under
any circumstances, nevertheless felt rather easy on that score.

About three o'clock in the morning some shots were fired from the
cottonwoods in the south, but they flew wild and the four did not reply.

"They came from a distance," said Boyd. "They're probably intended to
provoke our fire and tell just where we're lying."

After a while more shots were fired, now from the north, but as they
were obviously intended for the same purpose the four still remained
quiet. A little later Will heard a movement, a stamping of hoofs among
the animals, indicating alarm, and once more he crawled out of the
breastwork to soothe them.

The horses and mules responded as always to his whispered words of
encouragement and strokings of manes and noses, and he was about to
return when his attention was attracted by a slight noise in the bushes
on the farther side of the animals. Every motive of frontier caution and
thoroughness inclined him to see what it was. It might be and most
probably was a coyote hiding there in fear, but that did not prevent him
from stooping low and entering the bushes.

The growth of scrub, watered by seepage from the stream, was rather
dense, and he pushed his way in gently, lest a rustling of twigs and
leaves reach the Sioux, lurking among the cottonwoods. He did not hear
the noise again, an