of his expedition than he did of his own. For it seemed so
terrible that his old friend and guardian--one who had behaved to him
almost as a father should be waiting there day after day expecting help
in vain, and perhaps thinking that his messenger had failed to do his
duty.

"No, he won't, nor Joses neither, think that of me," muttered Bart. "I
wish the Beaver were here to cheer one up a bit, as he did that other
time when these bloodthirsty demons were after us."

"How their ponies can go!" he panted, as he turned his head to gaze back
at the fierce savages, who tore along with feathers and long hair
streaming behind them, as wild and rugged as the manes and tails of
their ponies.

As they saw him look round, the Apaches uttered a tremendous yell,
intended to intimidate him. It was just as he had begun to fancy that
Black Boy was flagging, and that, though no faster, the Indians' ponies
were harder and more enduring; but, at the sound of that yell and the
following shouts of the insatiate demons who tore on in his wake, the
little black cob gathered itself together, gave three or four tremendous
bounds, stretched out racing fashion, and went away at a speed that
astonished his rider as much as it did the savages, who began to fire at
them now, bullet after bullet whizzing by as they continued their
headlong flight.

The sound of the firing, too, had its effect on Black Boy, whose ear was
still sore from the effect of the bullet that had passed through it, and
he tore away more furiously than ever, till, finding that the Indians
were losing ground, Bart eased up a little, but only to let the cob go
again, for he was fretting at being held in, and two or three times a
bullet came in pretty close proximity to their heads.

When night fell, the Apaches were on the other side of a long low ridge,
down whose near slope the cob had come at a tremendous rate; and now
that the Indians would not be able to follow him for some hours to come
either by sight or trail, Bart altered his course, feeling sure that he
could save ground by going to the right instead of to the left of the
mountain-clump before him; and for the next few hours he breathed more
freely, though he dared not stop to rest.

The next day he saw nothing of his pursuers, and the next they were
pursuers no longer, but Bart knew it not, flying still for his life,
though he was now in the region that would be swept by the lancers of
the Government.

He