rested after their
labours till the morning, when, leaving two of the Indians bound to
trees in a similar way as they had discovered poor Seth's protege, they
started back for the camp, taking with them the chief, Rising Cloud,
whom they did not release until they reached the spot where the original
row had occurred, where the chief had his arms unpinioned and was told
he might go and free his companions.

The Indian did not take a very affectionate farewell of his escort. As
Mr Rawlings and Ernest untied his hands and told him he might go, he
pointed first towards the sky, then towards the east from whence they
had just come, and then in the direction where Minturne Creek lay.

"Yes, white man master now! Rising Cloud go home to his tribe; but
by-and-by he come back again with a thousand warriors at his back, and
wipe out the white men, robbers of the red man's land. Yes, by the
Manitou of the palefaces Rising Cloud swears it!"

And the Indian spat on the ground with a savage gesture as he spoke.

STORY ONE, CHAPTER NINETEEN.

GOLD AT LAST--EUREKA!

When Jasper and the mule waggon appeared at Minturne Creek, some time
after the departure of Noah Webster and the rescue party, the miners who
had been left at work under the charge of Tom Cannon, as Noah's deputy,
greeted the arrival with a cheer, as they had been kept in ignorance of
what had really happened, and imagined that the waggon had been sent
for, as well as a few additional good shots from their party, in order
to bring in an unexpected supply of game which the hunters had come
across.

Jasper's conveyance certainly did carry something in the game line, the
negro having mentioned to Seth about the wapiti deer that Ernest Wilton
had shot, and being directed by him to stop and cart it home with them,
as it lay in their road to the camp; but the main cargo of the waggon,
their wounded manager, whom Jasper hailed them to come and help him lift
out, was a double surprise to the men, and a grief as well, as may be
readily understood when it is considered how much Seth was liked by the
hands under him.

They vowed vengeance against the Indians; and it required all the
exercise of Seth's authority to prevent another party from sallying off
to aid the first in the rescue of Sailor Bill. But, after a time, the
excitement calmed down, and they waited with as much patience as they
possessed the return of the others; although nothing that Seth could say
wo