sh and a report from a
point higher up the slope. Albert felt something hot and
stinging in his face. But it was only a tiny fragment of rock
chipped off by the bullet as it passed.

Both Dick and Albert lay closer, as if they would press
themselves into the earth, and soon two or three more shots were
fired. All came from points higher up the slope, and none hit a
living target, though they struck unpleasantly close.

"I wish I could see something," exclaimed Albert impatiently.
"It's not pleasant to be shot at and to get no shot in return."

Dick did not answer. He was watching a point among some scrub
pines higher up the slope, where the boughs seemed to him to be
waving too much for the slight wind. Looking intently, he
thought he saw a patch of brown through the evergreen, and he
fired at it. A faint cry followed the shot, and Dick felt a
strange satisfaction; they were hunting him--well, he had given
a blow in return.

Silence settled down again after Dick's shot. The boys lay
perfectly still, although they could hear each other's
breathing. The silvery moonlight seemed to grow fuller and
clearer all the time. It flooded the whole slope. Boughs and
twigs were sheathed in it. Apparently, the moon looked down upon
a scene that was all peace and without the presence of a human
being.

"Do you think they'll rush us?" whispered Albert.

"No," replied Dick. "I've always heard that the Indian takes as
little risk as he possibly can."

They waited a little longer, and then came a flare of rifle shots
from a point farther up the slope. Brown forms appeared faintly,
and Dick and Albert, intent and eager, began to fire in reply.
Bullets sang by their ears and clipped the stones around them,
but their blood rose the higher and they fired faster and faster.

"We'll drive 'em back!" exclaimed Dick.

They did not hear the rapid patter of soft, light footsteps
coming from another direction, until a half dozen Sioux were upon
them. Then the firing in front ceased abruptly, and Dick and
Albert whirled to meet their new foes.

It was too late. Dick saw Albert struggling in the grasp of two
big warriors, and then saw and heard nothing more. He
had received a heavy blow on the head from the butt of a rifle
and became unconscious.

Chapter XV
The Indian Village

When Dick awoke from his second period of unconsciousness it
was to awake, as he did from the first, under a roof, but not,
as in the