of his oldest sub-chiefs.

"He won't find a drap of any kind of liquor," growled Bill. "But I
wish thar was some, and I could pisen it for him. They're a bad lot."

"Thar's too many on 'em for the boys to handle, I'm afraid."

"Captain Skinner's jest the man to try it and find out. Thar'll be a
hot time, thar will!"

Two Knives probably had some such idea in his head, for his next
orders, when carried out, left Bill and his two mates firmly bound to
separate trees, so that no braves need be compelled to waste their
precious time as "guards" over them.

The camp was now no longer the camp of the miners, it was that of the
Lipans, and everything in it was their property, by all the laws of
Indian warfare. There was yet to be at some future time, of course, a
fair division of the plunder, but the "transfer" had been fully made
and it was too late for anybody else to interfere.

It takes a great deal of civilization to make a South-western Indian,
of any tribe, understand the white man's idea that his horse is still
his own after it has been fairly stolen. To the Indian's mind, the
theft gives the thief even a better title than he could acquire by
paying money, and the biggest brave of any band is almost sure to be
its most successful and renowned horse-thief.

The Lipans were specially well pleased over their morning's work, for
they had won all that plunder without the loss of a single warrior.

The fate of the three prisoners was a matter to be thought over.
To-la-go-to-de was by no means sure he had no farther use for them. He
could wait till his braves should return from the examination he had
ordered of the plain below the valley. It was less than an hour before
they came back, and in a remarkable hurry, with the news of the
approach of the main body of the pale-faces.

Old Two Knives merely nodded his head. His captives had told him the
truth. But that number of white men would not be likely to attack at
once so strong a band as his own. A full company of regular cavalry
would hardly have been enough to scare him, for the Lipans are second
to no other in their fighting qualities, and these were picked and
chosen warriors.

"Pale-face come. Laugh at him."

Captain Skinner and his men saw nothing to laugh at when they rode near
enough to understand the condition of affairs in their camp.

The blow had fallen upon them so suddenly that, for some moments after
they halted on the plain, half a mi