suspense any change was welcome.

They rode straight up the valley, a long and formidable
procession, and as they went northward the depression became both
shallower and narrower. Finally, they crossed the river at a
rather deep ford and rode directly ahead. Soon the hills and the
forest that clothed them sank out of sight, and Dick and Albert
were once again in the midst of the rolling immensity of the
plains. They could judge the point of the compass by the sun,
but they knew nothing else of the country over which they
traveled. They tried two or three times to open conversation
with the warriors about them, trusting that the latter knew
English, but they received no reply and gave up the attempt.

"At any rate, I can talk to you, Al," said Dick after the last
futile attempt.

"Yes, but you can't get any information out of me," replied
Albert with a laugh.

The procession moved on, straight as an arrow, over the swells,
turning aside for nothing. Some buffaloes were seen on the
horizon, but they were permitted to crop the bunch grass
undisturbed. No Indian hunter left the ranks.

They camped that night on the open prairie, Dick and Albert
sleeping in their blankets in the center of the savage group. It
might have seemed to the ordinary observer that there was
looseness and disorder about the camp, but Dick was experienced
enough to know that all the Mendewahkantons were posted in the
circle according to their clans, and that the delegates were
distributed with them in places of honor.

Dick noticed, also, that no fires were built, and that the
warriors had scrutinized the entire circle of the horizon with
uncommon care. It could signify but one thing to him--white
people, and perhaps white troops, were near. If so, he prayed
that they were in sufficient force. He was awakened in the night
by voices, and raising himself on his elbow he saw a group of
men, at least a hundred in number, riding into the camp.

The latest arrivals were Sioux warriors, but of what tribe he
could not tell. Yet it was always the Sioux who were coming, and
it would have been obvious to the least observant that Dick's
foreboding about a mighty movement was right. They were joined
the next day by another detachment coming from the southwest, and
rode on, full seven hundred warriors, every man armed with the
white man's weapons, carbine or rifle and revolver.

"I pity any poor emigrants whom they may meet," thought Dick;