just how he managed it--wasn't watchin' him,
didn't suspect him--but when my back was turned, he must ha' took the
opportunity he was waitin' for an' cunningly dropped suthin' in my mug
of coffee. That's sure what he did. Thar ain't a doubt about it. I
didn't taste nothin' unusual; but that coffee was doped. I couldn't
keep awake. I fell asleep, an' yet not altogether asleep. I kinder
saw things an' heard 'em in a dreamy way.

"Seemed ter me after a while that the door opened an' a second Injun
came crawlin' in. It wasn't till afterwards that I realized who this
second one was. He looked at me hard, kept on watchin' me for mebbe a
full hour, until he figured I was sound asleep. Then he crept near an'
touched me: caught hold o' this yer vest an' tugged at it till he tore
a hole in it. Then he went about the room, silent as a cat. He drew
my boots away from the stove, where I'd put 'em to dry. He went to the
shelf, where that old pipe was lyin'. I dunno what else he did. I was
too much asleep t' know anythin' or care anythin'. I only know that it
was broad daylight when I awoke, that both them Injuns had vamoosed,
an' that I couldn't find my boots."

"Reason bein' that Broken Feather had took 'em," said Rube Carter.
"Didn't you find tracks outside the door, Nick?"

"Yes," Nick answered, "I found the marks of two pairs of moccasins
leadin' up to the door; a pair of moccasins an' a pair of hob-nailed
boots--my own boots--goin' away. It wasn't a very difficult
proposition, an' I allow it wasn't long 'fore I'd ciphered it all up.
I made out that Broken Feather, havin' failed in his raid on the Crow
Indian reservation, had planned ter come right here an' do a bit of the
burglary business in your absence. He's bin owin' me a grudge for a
while back. He took my boots so that the marks of 'em in the mud would
draw suspicion on me. D'ye savvy?"

"That was clearly his idea," Kiddie agreed, "and he very nearly
succeeded. He gave himself away, however, by plantin' too many false
clues around, an' makin' them too conspicuous. Did you follow on his
tracks, Nick?"

"We did," Nick replied. "Jim Thurston, Fred Crippleshaw an' me, we
follered him as far as Long Grass Creek. There we lost track of him,
an' gave up the chase. We couldn't hope ter get here in front of him,
though he was on foot an' we were mounted. But knowin' that he'd
likely be goin' back with the loot to his own village, an' guessin'
which tr