the kind," Cummings said angrily.
"After you so kindly did all you could to tell the Indians where we had
located it was necessary to make a quick move, and if I had had my way
you would never have known how near we were."

"I don't suppose it will do any good to say that I am sorry?" Jake
suggested meekly.

"Not a bit, for this is the second time you have done all the mischief
possible. By this last performance it has been necessary to take a
course nearly three times as long as the one we intended to travel, and
no one can say what you won't do before we are out of the scrape."

"I pledge my word to obey orders. The experience I have had during the
past twenty-four hours has taught me that I can't afford to take any
more chances while we are in this heathenish country."

"It is a grave question whether we shall be able to get clear, and now
that you have come we must make another change, running all the risks of
traveling in the daytime, for the enemy can follow up on your trail as
readily as if you had set sign-boards all the way."

Jake understood that it would do no good to make any reply while
Cummings was in such a rage, and he very wisely retreated to the further
end of the ravine where he whispered to Teddy:

"Can't you give me a bite to eat? I'm just about starved."

"Haven't you had anything since leaving the cave?"

"Not a mouthful, and only one drink of water."

"Where have you been?"

"Walkin' all the time. When I went away it was only with the intention
of travelin' a short distance. It didn't seem as if I had gone a
quarter of a mile before I turned to go back, an' I've been tryin' to
get there ever since."

"Didn't you sleep any last night?"

"Not a wink. I wanted to; but some kind of a big animal came prowlin'
around the tree I'd chosen as my sleepin' apartment, and after that I
couldn't so much as shut my eyes without takin' the chances of fallin'
off the branch."

"Did you meet any one?"

"No."

"But how came you over here so far?"

"It seems as if I'd had time to go across the whole country since I saw
you last. Say, give me some water and a mouthful of anything that's
eatable, an' then I'll get a little sleep before tacklin' Cummings
again. I suppose its a case of goin' way down on my marrow bones before
he'll forget what I've done."

"I fancy you are right in that respect," Teddy said gravely, as he
overhauled the stores to procure the food, "and he can't be blamed, for
you