st which cannot be
described.

Whatever the nature of the animal, he was evidently on a reconnaissance,
and had no purpose of venturing closer until satisfied the path was
clear to do so. It must have been that he cared very little one way or
the other, for while the two orbs were glaring upon Jack, they vanished
with a suddenness that suggested that some one had seized his tail and
flung him back into the gloom from which he first emerged.

It was incredible, too, that the chief should have sat quiet and
motionless with a wild beast so near him, unless he was asleep, but the
possibility of being mistaken after all, kept Jack from stirring for
fully a half hour longer.

The time seemed much later than it really was, when the boy rose on his
elbow and hesitated, while he looked intently around and listened for
the slightest sound. He glanced right and left at the figures shrouded
in the blankets, but they might have been so many dead men. He could
barely discern their outlines in the gloom, for the fire was slowly, but
steadily, sinking. Several times he had asked himself whether it would
not be wise to wait until it died out altogether, but he was too
strongly convinced that the night was nearly gone, and he would need
every minute in which to widen the distance between him and his
pursuers.

"No," he murmured, "it won't do to wait another second."

He was on one knee, with his hand pressing the ground, when the largest
stick on the fire burned in two in the middle, and the larger portion
rolled back and in front of the chief. The disturbance caused it to
flare up for the moment with a glare which revealed the figure of
Ogallah more distinctly than at any time since he had taken his
position.

Jack Carleton paused in his painful movement and became like a figure
cut in marble, staring straight at the warrior brought into such
unexpected prominence. As he did so, he saw that Ogallah was not only
wide awake, but had turned his head, and was looking straight at him.
The cunning fellow had not slept a wink from the moment he took his
singular position. He had noted the wolf which ventured close enough to
take a peep into camp, but, well aware that there was no danger, and
convinced also that his captive was awaiting the chance to steal away,
he held himself as rigid as iron until such an attempt should be made.

Poor Jack almost fainted in a collapse of despair. He saw that his
captors had trifled with him from the