t
ambush and victory, would not know there had been two stragglers
behind the train, and even had they known, to search for them
among the dense forests of distant mountain slopes would be a
futile task. Dick's mind turned instead to the needs of their
situation, and he began to appreciate the full danger and
hardship of it.

Albert and he were right in feeling thankful that they were
spared together, although they were alone in the wilderness in
every sense of the word. It was hundreds of miles north, east,
south, and west to the habitations of white men. Before them,
fold on fold, lay unknown mountains, over which only hostile
savages roamed. Both he and Albert had good rifles and belts
full of cartridges, but that was all. It was a situation to
daunt the most fearless heart, and the shiver that suddenly ran
over Dick did not come from the cold of the night.

They took a long rest in a little clump of high pines and saw a
cold, clear moon come out in the pale sky. They felt the awful
sense of desolation and loneliness, for it seemed to them that
the moon was looking down on an uninhabited world in which only
they were left. They heard presently little rustlings in the
grass, and thought at first it was another ambush, though they
knew upon second thought that it was wild creatures moving on the
mountain side.

"Come, Al," said Dick. "Another half hour will put us on top of
the ridge, and then I think it will be safe for us to stop."

"I hope they'll be keeping a good room for us at the hotel up
there," said Albert wanly.

Dick tried to laugh, but it was a poor imitation and he gave it
up.

"We may find some sort of a sheltered nook," he said hopefully.

Dick had become conscious that it was cold, since the fever in
his blood was dying down. Whenever they stopped and their bodies
relaxed, they suffered from chill. He was deeply worried about
Albert, who was in no condition to endure exposure on a bleak
mountain, and wished now for the buffalo robe they had regarded
as such a fine trophy.

They reached the crest of the ridge in a half hour, as Dick had
expected, and looking northward in the moonlight saw the dim
outlines of other ridges and peaks in a vast, intricate maze. A
narrow, wooded valley seemed to occupy the space between the
ridge on which they stood and the next one parallel to it to the
northward.

"It ought to be a good place down there to hide and rest," said
Albert.

"I think