Part 11 (1/2)

”Ah” Seth pulled out a five-dollar bill and handed it to the scout, and went on s Presently he asked, ”Have you been there?”

”No” Jiuity of expression

”Then you don't know if there's any traces, I guess”

”See I go dis place Little Black Fox hear He hear all So There are devils on the Reservation Jim Crow much watched So They know These red devils”

Seth noted the man's air of pride He was keenly alive to his own ierated it, which is the way of his class Jim Croas a treacherous rascal, but it paid him to work for the white folk He would work for the other side just as readily if it paid him better

”That's so,” observed Seth, seriously; but it was his pipe that absorbed his attention ”Wal, to- his pipe out, he rolled over on his blanket and slept

On the morrow the journey was continued, and at sundown they neared the great valley of the Missouri Their route lay over a trail which headed southeast, in the direction of Sioux City The sun had just dropped below the horizon when Jiht bear as a e and instinct far greater than that of a bloodhound on a hot scent He glanced around hi in the lay of the land at every point of the co a few hundred yards from the trail

”The bluff,” he said ”It may be e look for Sa-sa-runt which expressed assurance

The horses left the trail for the prairie The eyes of both round, which is the habit of such men when out on the trail It is the soil over which the prairie eneral scene is only the illustration

At the bluff the e haphazard into his search He still studied the brush and the ground But it was the scout whose trained instincts were the first to discover the signs they sought And he found it in the dead, broken thich on

The two followed the lead; followed it unerringly With every foot of the way the task became easier Once they had turned the cover the book had beco In a fewwell screened from the road Now they parted company The scout went on toward the water further on, but the whiteHerein was displayed the difference in the ination served hirass was tall in the clearing There was a low scrub too, but it was a scrub thatexa, discolored by weather, but intact, and still holding in the earth where it had been driven It was but four yards from this to a place where two distinct piles of hurass

Seth was on his knees pulling the grass aside, but he did not touch the bones The skeletons were far from complete Fortunately the skulls were there, and he saw that they were those of a hastly rehts conjured up h the woman's skull, and the horrid rift in the man's The absence of many of the bones of the extreers who are never far off when death stalks the plains

After a few rass in every direction He looked for ren In his search he was joined by the scout who had returned from the water, where he had discovered further traces of an encampment

At last the exa left to indicate the identity of the bones

The two men now stood by the bones of the unfortunatebrush

”I guess the Injuns cleaned things up pretty well,” he said, while his eyes settled on one little bush apart from the rest

The scout shook his head

”That's not Injuns' work,” he said

”No?” Seth queried casually

”No Everything gone So That not like Injun”