a stone.

He was deceived in this way so often--the various little prominences
below him seeming to waver and move, and assume form in accordance with
his ideas--that he grew tired of watching, feeling sure at last that
there would be nothing to trouble them that night, when suddenly a soft
firm hand glided gently and silently as a snake to his wrist, took firm
hold of it and pressed it, before rising and pointing down below them
into the plain.

Bart followed the direction of the pointing hand, but he could see
nothing, and he was about to say so, when gradually sweeping past, a few
light clouds must have left the moon partially clear, and with the
sudden access of light, Bart could make out two somethings close beside
the piled-up rocks, and for some moments he could not be sure that they
were men prostrated on their chests crawling towards the entrance to the
cattle corral, for they seemed to assimilate with the colour of the
earth; and though he strained his eyes, not a trace of motion could he
detect.

By degrees though it seemed to him that one of the figures was a man,
the other some shaggy kind of crouching beast, till his eyes grew more
educated, and he decided that one was an Indian naked to the waist,
while the other was wearing his buffalo robe as an additional means of
protection.

Bart watched them attentively, and still the figures did not move. At
last, however, he saw that they had changed their position, creeping
closer to the piled-up rocks, and at last, evidently encouraged by the
fact that when the firing took place that evening there was no response,
the two savages suddenly rose erect, and went to the piled-up stones
that blocked the corral entry.

"How did they know the cattle were there?" said Bart, putting his lips
close by Joses' ear.

"Nose!" whispered back the frontiersman, laconically.

"But how could they tell that this was the entrance?" whispered Bart
again.

"Eyes!" replied Joses; and he then laid his hand upon Bart's lips, as a
sign that he must refrain from speaking any more.

Bart rather chafed at this, and he was growing excited as well, for it
troubled him that Joses and the Beaver should have let these two spies
go right up to such a treasure as the cattle corral unchallenged; and
though he would not have thought of firing at the savages, he could not
help thinking that something ought to be done--what he could not say--
for the low grating noise he now heard was cert