ile we get a few
hours' sleep. That dog of yourn will give us notice if any of the
varmint are coming this way."

The night passed without alarm, and at the first dawn of light they were
upon their feet again. The horses were given a mouthful of water from
the skins, and then the hunters mounted and rode down the canon. There
would be pursuit, they knew well; but the Indians would not be able to
take up the trail until daylight, and would be an hour and a half
following it to the top of the canon, so that they had fully two hours'
start. This being the case, they did not hurry their horses, but kept up
a steady pace until they emerged at the lower end of the ravine; then
they urged them forward, and two hours later arrived at the
halting-place of the caravan. No move had been made, but the instant
they were seen approaching, Abe and his two comrades rode up to meet
them.

"What has happened?" he asked, as he reached them. "We have been
terrible uneasy about you, and I was just going to start to try and pick
up your track and follow you."

Dick related the adventure.

"It war well it war no worse," Abe said. "That critter's sense has saved
your lives, for ef he hadn't given you warning you would have ridden
slap into the hands of the Injins; you may consider you are quits with
him now, Frank. But it war a nasty fix, and I congratulate you both on
having brought your har safely back to camp; that coming straight back
on your trail when you was stopped by the fall of the ground was a
judgmatical business."

"It was Frank's idee," Dick said.

"Wall, he just hit the right thing; if it hadn't been for that you would
have been rubbed out sure."

At the next halting-place they found that three or four of the caravans
which had preceded them had halted, being afraid to move forward in
small parties, as the Indians had made several attacks. With the
accession of force given by the arrival of John Little's party, they
considered themselves able to encounter any body of redskins they might
meet, as there were now upwards of fifty waggons collected, with a
fighting force of seventy or eighty men.

They therefore moved forward confidently. Several times parties of
Indian horsemen were seen in the distance, but they never showed in
force, the strength of the caravan being too great for any hope of a
successful attack being made upon it.

It was nearly five months from the time of their leaving Omaha before
the caravan app