ear, don't desert your post."

"But, if for some reason you want me, how am I to know?"

Charley reflected for a moment. "I have a couple of rockets in my
saddle-bags," he said; "if I send up one, you may know it's a signal to
come back. Now be sure to keep your eyes out for trouble as you near
the point. No one can tell, now, what the situation may be."

The two chums silently clasped hands in a hearty, farewell grip, and
Walter, picking up his rifle and some of the remnants from breakfast,
vaulted the tree breastwork and with a cheery nod and wave of his hand
to those left behind, quickly vanished in the forest.

Charley stood for a moment gazing after him with something like a mist
in his honest brown eyes. "Dear old fellow," he murmured, "God grant
that all will turn out well and that we may be safe together again
before night falls."

The captain's voice brought him back from his musing. "Well, Charley,"
he sung out cheerily, "I've got together the things we can't well spare
and distributed them between the canoes. I reckoned that was where you
wanted 'em. What's the next orders, General?"

"Nothing, but to get our guns and all the spare ones, and take stands
along the wall. Those fellows may try to drive us off this morning."

The captain grinned with satisfaction as he took his place behind the
barricade.

"I reckon they'll have to be pretty smart to get on this point," he
commented. "There's a tidy stretch of right open ground to be crossed
before they reach here."

"I picked it out just for that reason," Charley admitted. "We can
stand them off here during the day, but at night we cannot stop them, I
fear."

"Aye, aye," nodded the captain thoughtfully, "that's the reason for
fixing up the canoes."

Charley nodded in turn. "I hope we won't have to take to them," he
said. "It would come hard to lose our ponies, our packs, and all that
helps to make our camp life comfortable."

"We won't lose 'em," declared the captain, cheerfully. "This time
to-morrow night we'll be safe and hearty sitting around the fire
figuring up our share of the rewards they must be offering by this time
for those pretty jail-birds."

This ended the conversation, for each took his position behind the tree
barricade with all senses alert for any indications of an attack.

For long Charley kept shifting his gaze from the woods before him to
the tall sapling on Lookout Point. At last a smudge of red showed near
t