authorities could get at the man."

"I wish so, too." He leaned over Jamieson.

"Good luck!" said Colonel Cummings, going back to his maps.

"Thank you."

And just at that moment, as Lounsbury swung round on his heel, there
rang out from the river a single pistol-shot. It echoed sharply against
the barracks and went dying away upon the bluffs.

CHAPTER XI

A LITTLE STRATEGY

Fraser's shot drew many eyes to the river. For, in the winter time, any
occurrence, however trifling, could get the instant attention of the
lonely garrison. Troopers in various stages of dress came tumbling out
upon the long porch at barracks; others looked from the many windows of
the big frame structure; the washer-women and their hopefuls blocked the
doorways of "Clothes-Pin Row"; officers everywhere--at headquarters, at
the sutler's, in their homes--and their wives and families, up and down
the "Line," remarked the signal. But when Lounsbury brought up beside
Fraser, and the two seemed to be occupying themselves with nothing in
particular, the onlookers laid the shot to an over-venturesome
water-rat, and so withdrew from their points of vantage.

"What is it?" was the storekeeper's first breathless demand.

The young officer, hands on hips, nodded straight ahead. "You see those
willows just below the cut?" he asked. "Well, there's a queer, black
bunch in 'em."

"Yes. Is it a man?"

"I think so."

"Moved?"

"Not yet."

"Come on, then. Maybe he's aiming for the coulee mouth, so's to sneak up
to the Lancasters' from behind."

They charged away across the mile of ice.

"If it's Matthews, why didn't he wing me as I went by," panted
Lounsbury.

"Look, look!" cried Fraser. "Now, he's moving!"

They stopped to loosen their revolvers, after which they started again,
cautiously.

The tops of the willows were shaking. Presently, they spread outward,
and the "black bunch" lengthened. Then it emerged, and was resolved into
a blanketed Indian.

"Charley!" exclaimed the officer. As he spoke, the outcast, shouldering
a bundle of sticks, began to climb the cut.

The two men looked at each other and burst into a laugh.

"Fraser," said Lounsbury, "did you ever hear of the fellow that stalked
a deer all day and then found it was a speck on his glasses?"

"That's one on me," admitted the lieutenant, sheepishly. "I knew nobody
had come out of that door--but you see we were in the stable a while."

"'Charley,'--that squaw Indi