to serve. The
three paused for a full two minutes exactly opposite Dick, and he
could have reached out and touched them with the barrel of his
rifle; but they were thinking little of the presence of an enemy.
Dick judged by the emphasis of their talk that it was on a matter
of some great moment, and he saw all three of them point at times
toward the east.

"It's surely war," he thought, "and our army if somewhere off
there in the east."

Dick saw that Bright Sun remained the dominating figure
throughout the discussion. Its whole effect was that of Bright
Sun talking and the others listening. He seemed to communicate
his fire and enthusiasm to his comrades, and soon they nodded a
vigorous assent. Then the three walked silently away toward the
village.

Dick rose from his covert, cast a single glance at the direction
in which the three chiefs had disappeared, and then began to
retrace his own steps. It was his purpose to arouse Albert and
flee at once to a less dangerous region. But the fate of Dick
and his brother rested at that moment with a mean, mangy, mongrel
cur, such as have always been a part of Indian villages, a cur
that had wandered farther from the village than usual that night
upon some unknown errand.

Dick had gone about thirty yards when he became conscious of a
light, almost faint, pattering sound behind him. He stepped
swiftly into the heaviest shadow of trees and sought to see what
pursued. He thought at first it was some base-born wolf of the
humblest tribe, but, when he looked longer, he knew that it was
one of the meanest of mean curs, a hideous, little yellowish
animal, sneaking in his movements, a dog that one would gladly
kick out of his way.

Dick felt considerable contempt for himself because he had been
alarmed over such a miserable little beast, and resumed his swift
walk. Thirty yards farther he threw a glance over his shoulder,
and there was the wretched cur still following. Dick did not
like it, considering it an insult to himself to be trailed by
anything so ugly and insignificant. He picked up a stone, but
hesitated a moment, and then put it down again. If he threw the
stone the dog might bark or howl, and that was the last thing
that he wanted. Already the cur, mean and miserable as he
looked, had won a victory over him.

Dick turned into a course that he would not have taken otherwise,
thinking to shake off his pursuer, but at the next open space he
saw him stil