him.

"I see. You figger to git scoutin' agin when this is through. Say, you're
wuss'n I thought. You're wuss'n----"

He broke off, struck with a sudden thought. In a moment he had dropped his
tone of severity.

"See, I'm goin' to hand you twenty dollars," he said, holding the other's
shifty eyes with his own steady gaze, "if you've a notion to earn 'em an'
act squar'. Say, I ken trust you if I pay you. You ain't like the white
Injun, Nevil Steyne, who's bin Black Fox's wise man so long. After he'd
fixed the mischief he gits around to us an' turns on the Indians. He's
fought with us. An' he's goin' to fight with us to-morrow. He's a traitor
to the Indians. You belong to the whites, and you come to help us when you
can. Now, see here. You're goin' to make north hard as hell 'll let you,
savee? An' if the soldiers git here at sundown to-morrow night, I'm goin'
to give you twenty dollars, and I'll see you're made head scout agin."

Seth waited for his answer. It came in a great tone of self-confidence.

"I, Jim Crow, make soldiers dis night. So."

"Good. You act squar'. You ain't no traitor to the white man, same as
Nevil Steyne's traitor to the Indian, which I guess Black Fox likely knows
by this time."

"Yes. Black Fox know."

CHAPTER XXX

THE LAST STAND

Sunrise brought the alarm. The call to arms came in the midst of
breakfast. But it came to men who were discussing possibilities with
smiling faces, and to women who were no longer held silent by the dread of
the last few days. For all had shared in Seth's news. And if ever words
were graven on the hearts of human beings, Seth's announcement, "Troops
are comin' from the north," would most certainly have been found inscribed
on the hearts of the defenders of White River Farm.

The attack began as the sun cleared the horizon, and continued all day.
Like the first few raindrops of a storm-shower the enemy's bullets hissed
through the air or spattered upon the buildings. Their long-range firing
did little harm, for Indians are notoriously bad marksmen.

The sun mounted; the hours crept by. The attack was general, and each
minute diminished the enveloping circle. The Indians had learned many
lessons during the past six days, and not the least of them the utter
folly of recklessness. Now they crawled upon their bellies through the
grass, offering the smallest possible target to the keen-eyed garrison.
But even so their death-roll was enormous. The plain