set, and that
was my only hope. Three of the Indians filed by. They all wore
moccasins, and their step was noiseless. They were talking, and passed
on through into the kitchen and outdoors. I think they were looking
for the cow, and took this as the best way to get to the barn. I
pressed back farther in the closet and waited. Soon they came back,
and again passed me, and went on out of the front door. I got out and
crawled up-stairs, thinking to find a better hiding-place and wishing
heartily that I was back under the platform. I looked out of an upper
window and saw them all at the farther end of the street again.
By-and-by they went into Fitzsimmons's store.

Though I did not take my eyes off the store for two hours I saw no
more of the Indians, and by this time it was so dark that I could no
longer see them if they did come out. I began to hear a strange noise,
and opened the window slightly and listened. It was the Indians
shouting and singing. Then it dawned upon me that they had found the
whiskey and that they were all getting drunk in Fitzsimmons's cellar.

This, of course, gave me a new cause of dread, for, if a sober Indian
is bad, a drunken one is a thousand times worse. I felt sure that they
would now set the town on fire through accident even if they did not
intend to do so. The fiendish howling constantly grew worse and was
soon almost as bad as that of the wolves ever was. I still could think
of nothing to remedy matters. By this time it was pitch-dark. I
determined to have a look at them, anyhow. It occurred to me that
probably they had begun at the whiskey before the cow disappeared, and
that this had helped to make their search unsuccessful.

I went down and out the back door of the hotel and crept along the
rear of the buildings till I came to Fitzsimmons's. The yelling and
whooping of those savages was something blood-curdling to hear. There
was a window for lighting the cellar close to the ground in the rear
foundation-wall. A wide board stood in front of it, but I dug the snow
away, pushed this board a little to one side, and looked in. They
seemed to be having a free fight, and many of them were covered with
blood. A smoking kerosene lamp stood on a box, and around this they
surged and fought and howled. As I looked the lamp was knocked to the
floor and blazed up. One of the Indians fell on it and smothered the
flames, and the struggling and diabolical yelling went on in the
dark.

As suddenly