dog and you can take what order
you choose, but," he added with unmistakable earnestness, "every one
of you must keep in the background till I'm through."

Timon held his motionless position until the four men had taken
several steps toward him and there could be no error as to their
intention. Vose Adams observed that he was following, without a hair's
variation, the course he had in mind.

"It serves 'em right," was his angry reflection; "when the leftenant
spoke 'bout hunting up a new trail through the mountains, I oughter
knowed he hain't no sense and was sure to make a mess of things. Now's
he gone and sneaked off where these folks will stub their toes agin
him; I'm 'sprised that the Queen didn't hammer a little sense into his
head."

The guide was in a torture of apprehension. The impending outcome was
likely to betray the deception he had used, but it was not for that he
cared. There could be no mistaking the deadly mood of Captain Dawson
and the equally intense hatred of Ruggles and Brush. A meeting with
Lieutenant Russell made a frightful tragedy inevitable, and no one
could be more vividly aware of the fact than the young officer
himself, for Vose had impressed it upon him, but the guide in his
anguish of spirit, saw no possible escape from it. He stolidly
followed, striving to brace himself for what must soon come.

Meanwhile, the strange leadership continued. Timon seemed to be
impatient, for occasionally he broke into a trot, abruptly pausing and
looking back, as if to urge his followers to use more haste. Since
they did not do so, he checked himself, when about to pass beyond
sight and waited for them to draw near. He led them around boulders
and masses of rocks, over ridges, down declivities, across one small
stream, through a ravine and again among the precipitous piles of
stone, until even the hardy men were well nigh exhausted. They had
traveled fully a mile over a route that was of the most trying
nature.

It was about this time that an extraordinary suspicion began forming
in the mind of Vose Adams. He hardly dared give credence to it, but it
took greater hold upon him with every few rods of advance. Nothing in
the world would have induced him to make known his suspicion, but it
continued to grow.

Suddenly Captain Dawson stopped. As he looked around his face was
agitated.

"Boys," said he, "there's something infernally strange about this."

Vose Adams saw that his own suspicion had enter