at first suspecting it to be one,
soon became certain. For, as they scattered to each side of the cleft,
the steel tube no longer kept turning towards them, while the coonskin
cap remained equally without motion.

At length, becoming convinced, and urged on by the Red Cross chief and
the bearded savage by his side, they dashed boldly up, and, dismounting,
entered the chine over the body of the butchered horse.

Only staying to take possession of the relinquished rifle, they
continued on up the ravine fast as their feet could carry them. A
moment's pause where the red kerchief lay on the rock, suspecting this
also a ruse to mislead them as to the track taken by the fugitives. To
make certain, they separated into two parties--one going up the gulch,
that led left, the other proceeding by that which conducted to the place
where the two men had concealed themselves.

Arriving upon the little platform, the pursuers at once discovered the
cavity, at the same time conjecturing that the pursued had gone into it.
Becoming sure of this, they who took the left-hand path rejoined them,
these bringing the report that they had ascended to the summit of the
cliff, and seen nothing of the two men who were chased.

Then the stones were cast in; after them the burning stalks of the
_ideodondo_; when, finally, to make destruction sure, the rock was
rolled over, closing up the shaft as securely as if the cliff itself had
fallen face downward upon the spot.

The savages stayed no longer there. All were too eager to return to the
waggons to make sure of their share in the captured spoils.

One alone remained--he with the bushed beard. After the others were
gone he stepped up to the boulder, and, stooping down, placed his ear
close to it. He appeared as if trying to catch some sound that might
come from the cavity underneath.

None came--no noise, even the slightest. Within the shut shaft all was
still as death. For death itself must be down there, if there ever was
life.

For some time he crouched beside the rock, listening. Then rising to
his feet, with a smile of satisfaction upon his grim, sinister features,
he said, in soliloquy,--

"They're down there, no doubt of it; and dead long before this. One of
the two must have been he. Who the other matters not _Carrai_! I'd
like to have had a look at him too, and let him see who has given him
his quietus. Bah! what does it signify? It's all over now, and I've
had my r