pplause of enemies, of barbarians, who
wished to see him suffer, it encouraged Dick. He would endure
everything and he would not look at these cruel faces; so he
fixed his eyes on the high hill and did not look away when the
bowstrings twanged a third time. As before, he heard the arrows
whistle by him, and the shiver came into his blood, but his will
did not let it extend to his body. He kept his eyes fixed upon
the hill, and suddenly a speck appeared before them. No, it was
not a speck, and, incredible as it seemed, Dick was sure that he
saw a horseman come around the base of the hill and stop there,
gazing into the valley upon the great village and the people
thronging about the bound boy.

A second and third horseman appeared, and Dick could doubt no
longer. They were white cavalrymen in the army uniform, scouts
or the vanguard, he knew not what. Dick held his breath, and
again that shiver came into his blood. Then he heard and saw an
extraordinary thing. A singular deep, long-drawn cry came from
the multitude in unison, a note of surprise and mingled threat.
Then all whirled about at the same moment and gazed at the
horsemen at the base of the hill.

The cavalrymen quickly turned back, rode around the hill and out
of sight. Dozens of warriors rushed forward, hundreds ran to the
lodges for more weapons and ammunition, the women poured in a
stream down toward the river and away, the boys with the bows and
arrows disappeared, and in a few minutes Dick was left alone.

Unnoticed, but bound and helpless, the boy stood there on the
little hill, while the feverish life, bursting now into a
turbulent stream, whirled and eddied around him.

Chapter XVIII
The Circle of Death

The quiver in Dick's blood did not cease now. He forgot for the
time being that he was bound, and stood there staring at the hill
where three horsemen had been for a few vivid moments. These men
must be proof that a white army was near; but would this army
know what an immense Sioux force was waiting for it in the valley
of the Little Big Horn?

He tried to take his eyes away from the hill, but he could not.
He seemed to know every tree and shrub on it. There at the base,
in that slight depression, the three horsemen had stood, but none
came to take their place. In the Indian village an immense
activity was going on, both on Dick's side of the river and the
other. A multitude of warriors plunged into the undergrowth on
the