fe. Of course it was the Fox; and he seemed
to have a storm of passion in his dark face.

But while Thad had been prompt to knock the revolver from the hand of
Kracker, he was just as quick to leap alongside the young Crow boy,
and grasp his wrist.

"Give me that knife, Fox!" he said sternly.

The Indian looked up in his face; for a moment it seemed as though he
might be about to mutiny, and positively refuse the order; then his
whim changed, and opening his fingers he allowed the shining blade to
fall to the ground.

"Ugh! hunt him long time; now find, make give up what snake in the
grass steal away from teepee in reservation!" he grunted,
disconsolately.

"Oh! well, if he's got anything that belongs to you, or your people,
why you've my full permission to search him, and get it back," Thad
went on to say, quickly; "only we want no violence here, if we can
help it. We scouts generally manage to reach our ends without that,
you know, Fox. Go ahead and see. We'll keep his friends quiet
meanwhile, eh, boys?"

"That's what we will, Thad," said Giraffe, who was standing close by,
with his gun poking almost into the ribs of the big man with the
purple face. "We c'n do it to beat the band, I tell you. And here
comes Allan in, to have a hand in the game. Didn't he keep a bead on
the colonel here all the while; and if you hadn't jumped in, and
snatched that gun away from him, I warrant Allan was just on the point
of making him a one-armed man for a while."

But Thad was not paying much attention to what the talkative Giraffe
said, his attention being taken up with other matters. The Fox had
heard him give permission to search the pockets of the short rascal he
was holding down, after having caught him in the loop of Bumpus' rope,
taken slily from the limb of the tree where the fat scout carefully
kept it while in camp. The light that flashed athwart the mahogany
colored face of the young Crow told how pleased he was with this
chance that was offered.

He immediately started to rummage through the various pockets of
Waffles. Quite naturally the lesser bully objected to such liberties
being taken with his person; and it must have galled him more than a
little to realize that it was an _Indian_, and a boy at that, who was
subjecting him to such indignities; for like most men along the
border, Waffles undoubtedly held Indians in contempt.

But when he raised his voice in stormy protest Thad told him to hush
up; besides