to go with the train.

"That settles it," he said, turning away. "You can do as you
please, but what happens after we get into the Black Hills is
another thing. Likely, we'll scatter."

The sound of his retreating footsteps quickly died away in the
darkness, and Bright Sun, too, slid among the shadows. He was
gone so quickly and quietly that it gave Dick an uncanny feeling.

"What do you make of it, Al?" he asked his brother. "What does
Bright Sun mean by what he said to us?"

The glow of the flame fell across Albert's pale face, and, by the
light of it, Dick saw that he was very thoughtful. He seemed to
be looking over and beyond the fire and the dark prairie, into
time rather than space.

"I think it was a warning, Dick," replied Albert at last. "Maybe
Bright Sun intended it for only you and me. But I want to go up
there in the Black Hills, Dick."

"And so do I. It'll be easier for you, Al, than the trip across
the continent. When you are a mile and a half or two miles above
the sea, you'll begin to take on flesh like a bear in summer.
Besides, the gold, Al! think of the gold!"

Albert smiled. He, too, was having happy thoughts. The warm
glow of the fire clothed him and he was breathing easily and
peacefully. By and by he sank down in his blanket and fell into
a sound sleep. Dick himself did not yet have any thought of
slumber. Wide-awake visions were pursuing one another through
his brain. He saw the mountains, dark and shaggy with pine
forests, the thin, healing air over them, and the beds of gold in
their bosom, with Albert and himself discovering and triumphant.

The fire died down, and glowed a mass of red embers. The talk
sank. Most of the men were asleep, either in their blankets or
in the wagons. The darkness thickened and deepened and came
close up to the fires, a circling rim of blackness. But Dick was
still wakeful, dreaming with wide-open eyes his golden dreams.

As the visions followed one after another, a shadow which was not
a part of any of them seemed to Dick to melt into the uttermost
darkness beyond the fires. A trace of something familiar in the
figure impressed him, and, rising, he followed swiftly.

The figure, still nebulous and noiseless, went on in the
darkness, and another like it seemed to rise from the plain and
join it. Then they were lost to the sight of the pursuer,
seeming to melt into and become a part of the surrounding
darkness. Dick, perplexed and