starting to run, had also assumed a stooping position. It was as if he
had quietly sunk below the surface of a sea of darkness through which
he was wading, and swum with noiseless celerity to a point beyond
reach.

Vose was angered but took his defeat philosophically.

"You was too smart for me that time; I never had it played finer on
me, but I guess it's just as well; you've learned that we're on the
lookout and you can't sneak into camp without _some_ risk of having a
hole bored inter you."

But Vose was not yet through with his nocturnal experiences. He held
his seat for some fifteen or twenty minutes without seeing or hearing
anything to cause the slightest misgiving. The horses still slept,
and even the uneasy Hercules appeared to have become composed and to
have made up his mind to slumber until morning.

"I don't b'leve there'll be anything more to disturb me, onless some
wild animal wants his supper----"

The thought had hardly taken shape, when a shiver of affright ran
through him, though the cause was so slight that it might have brought
a smile, being nothing more than a pebble rolling down the ravine, up
which the fugitives had passed the day before. The stone came slowly,
loosening several similar obstructions, which joined with it, the
rustling increasing and continuing until all reached the bottom and
lay at rest a few feet from where he sat.

Nothing could have been easier than for this to occur in the natural
course of things, since hundreds of such instances were taking place
at every hour of the day and night, but in the tense state of the
sentinel's nerves, he was inclined to attribute it either to the
Indian that had just visited camp and slunk away, or to one of his
comrades trying to steal a march upon him.

"I 'spose the next thing will be for him to climb over this boulder
behind me and drop onto my head. Howsumever, if he does, he'll find me
awake."

Vose sat thus, depending almost wholly upon his sense of hearing to
apprise him of the stealthy approach of an enemy, while the long
silent hours gradually passed, without bringing additional cause for
alarm.

CHAPTER XXV

INSTINCT OR REASON

As the night wore away without bringing any further evidence of the
presence of enemies, the solicitude of Vose Adams was transferred to
the two, who, hardly a mile distant, were awaiting with equal anxiety
the coming of morning. They and he had agreed upon the plan to be
pursued, but