Part 17 (2/2)

CHAPTER XXIV

SILE'S VICTORY

There had been no anxiety at the e Parks and Yellow Pine had their hands very full of an inspection of the cargoes of the tagons The le riving Ha-ha-pah-no and Na-tee-kah were as busy as bees over the lengthening list of marvels put before their eyes It seeician, or else that he had a whole lodge full of ”medicine-men” of a rare breed at hoht chose to call for It was no use to try to understand such things as he and Yellow Pine were exareat irl could not be expected to guess very nearly at their uses She could comb her hairit up, and she did not kno closely she was ie, not to speak of older ones

Noon ca hunters or of gaer of fae Parks would hardly have unpacked s,” as Pine called the forward farther down the valley and on the other side of the little river

On, on rode Two Arrows and his co older It was no sort of boy-play to ride like that, with such tre upon them Sile's merry face put on a tremendously sober and earnest expression, while Two Arrows looked as if he were already a chief in command of a war-party So he was, only that the party was a very small one

Mile after mile went by, and the horses held out capitally; but at last Two Arrows slackened his gait, seemed to make a silent calculation, and halted

”Pale-face ca across towards the e at their left ”Red-head cross water Tell his people Two Arrows ride Tell Nez Perce Red-head go straight, find ca we'd gone up river about far enough We ot away ahead of the Apaches Hope I sha'n't meet any”

”Shoot quick,” said Two Arrows ”Kill Take 'calp Be great brave Two Arrows kill grisly Kill 'Pache some day How!”

He held out his hand, and Sile shook it hard in token of good-bye, and the two boys separated, each to carry his own tidings and face his own dangers Two Arrows rode on in a straight line up the valley, and Sile wheeled towards the line of forest which bordered the river It struck hihborhood of the uess-work At all events, he was sure that his re one; it could not fail to be intensely exciting Again he saw plenty of gaely tempted to try a shot at a deer until the idea caht hear the report of my rifle”

Deer did not seealloped on In a few minutes more his horse's feet were in the water, and he was alood ford

It grew deep too fast, and he had to ride out again

”I won't go into another pool,” he said to himself ”I'll hunt for a wide place where it ripples well”

He had not the experience and the quick eyes of Two Arrows, but he was learning fast, and it was easy to find a better crossing Once over, he felt that the forest was itself a sort of protection, and there ca out from under it

What if the Apaches should be already there, and what if they had found the camp and destroyed it?

”They haven't done that,” said Sile, ”unless they ed to take it by surprise Guess they couldn't do that in broad daylight Our men are all old hands, and Yellow Pine keeps his eyes about hiood while before dark--that is, if I ood cover all the way”

He drew rein for a moment under the last line of trees, and he looked earnestly in all directions, but even his spy-glass could not reveal to hi more absolutely quiet and peaceful than was that stretch of open valley, with its grass and its bushes, and its clusters of grand old trees It encouraged hi within a quarter of a mile of hiinning to show signs of hard riding, and he noted it regretfully There ht yet be a race to run, for all he knew

There was to be so very different from a race, and the notice of it cah a patch of s in a long holloalking his horse because of their being in his way a little, his heart seeain, and like a trip-hammer, for a moment The bridle fell from his hand, and he made ready his rifle as if by an instinctive ht before hiround, sat an Indian brave, in his war-paint, upon a very fine looking horse, and Sile was sure at a glance that he could not be one of his Nez Perce friends They had no such horses as that a all that he and Two Arrows had found for the in the opposite direction at the instant, but he was also wheeling his horse, and in a second or sobehind hi-rifle as Sile's own, and he raised it like a flash

It was as if he lifted two, for Sile's rifle also came up with precisely the same quick, ready-handed motion

It was an awful mo in one hour as he did between his first gli line of that rifle-barrel