s
unaided vision. He was testing whether he could thus discern that which
the glass revealed plainly. Evidently he did so, though the boys could
not locate the form, even when they knew almost precisely where to look
for it.

Standing upright, the Shawanoe took his blanket from the back of
Whirlwind and swung it back and forth over his head, for fully a dozen
times. Then, dropping it to his feet, he brought the glass again to his
eye.

"Taggarak has seen it," whispered Victor, who, like his brother, was
watching the face of Deerfoot and noted the smile come to his
countenance.

Such was the fact. As the Shawanoe looked again he observed the
chieftain rise from his sitting position and reply to the signal by
waving his own blanket. The trained vision of the veteran warrior saw
as clearly as those of youth. The action of Taggarak brought him into
view of the lads, both noting the flickering of what resembled a mere
speck in the distance. Finally, Deerfoot lowered the glass and turned
about, as if to say that was the final parting from the chief who held
him in such loving remembrance.

The mountain peaks on every hand were covered with snow. On the lower
ranges this would gradually dissolve under the rays of the sun, but
others were so lofty that the white blanket remained throughout the
year. While gazing at a towering range to the northeast the three
witnessed the descent of an avalanche. Deerfoot was the first to see
it, and directed the notice of the boys to the vast disturbance.

The glance revealed nothing unusual, the enormous extent of slope
looking as if it were motionless, but a second look told the truth. A
grove of pines at the base of the range were suddenly snuffed out. This
was because they disappeared under the prodigious mass of snow and ice
that swept over them. Then a dark, irregular line, running right and
left, and roughly parallel with the crest of the range, came into view.
It was an eighth of a mile in length and the narrow width rapidly
increased until there was a rent or yawn of several hundred feet,
zigzagging from one side to the other. The dark color of this chasm was
due to rocks and ground, and marked the break between the two sections
or divisions of the avalanche. The upper portion caught and held, while
the remainder swept downward without check. Thus a huge gap was opened,
through which the brown earth and stones showed.

The next strange sight was that of boulders, some of them