eyelids and said in very good English:

"Shoot thieves. Steal Indians' ponies."

It flashed upon me that perhaps I could make him help me after all,
though I could see that he was a renegade and a drunkard.

"Did you see the fight?" I asked, beginning vaguely to suspect the
truth.

He gave a grunt which meant yes. "Heap good fight," he added.

"Will you help fight if they come again?"

He said nothing, but sat looking at Kaiser, who was still growling,
and only kept back because I held him by the collar.

"Where do you stay?" I asked. He made no answer.

"How did you come here?" I went on.

"Other Indians," he said. "Long sleep--gone when wake up."

I thought I saw through the whole thing.

"Did you see face--all fire--looking at you down in cellar?"

He only gazed at me out of his little black eyes. I guessed that he
had drunk more than the others and had gone to sleep before the bad
spirit looked in at the window, and so had not seen it and had been
left behind.

"Did you see barn burn--big fire?" I asked.

He made not a sound in reply to this.

"Give me the gun," I said.

He gave his head a little shake and jerked out a sharp grunt.

"Give it to me and I give you another to-morrow."

He made not a movement or sound. I could see that he had no intention
of giving it up.

"Do you live in cellar?" I asked. He made the sound that seemed to
mean yes. I remembered that I had not gone down into Fitzsimmons's
cellar after the Indians went away because things were in such
confusion that I saw I could do nothing with them. Since that I had
had no occasion to go into the store at all. I had no doubt that he
had stolen everything I had missed, but had been unable to get a gun
before, because I had kept them very carefully under lock and key. I
thought from his looks that he had probably lived principally on the
liquor in the cellar, with the groceries that were in the store and
what meat he had stolen from me. I could feel that it was getting
colder in the stronghold, and guessed that he had broken open the
tunnel, either purposely, after hearing Kaiser bark, or by accident
when walking over it, as the thaw had weakened the roof a good deal.

"Want to get out," I said. "Go first!"

He pressed back close to the wall of the tunnel. "You go--take dog,"
he said. I made Kaiser go ahead, took the lantern and followed,
saying "Come" to the Indian. He did so, simply stooping down, though I
crawled on my hands