got out of the bluff, and then the wagon was
close ahead."

"How was it you avoided falling in after me?"

"That's easy understood in the daylight. The trail twists sharply and
runs along the edge of the ravine. I stuck to it; instead of turning,
you went straight on."

"Yes," said George, and mentioned having seen the Indian who left the
wagon. Then he asked: "But what about the fellow you followed?"

His companion hesitated.

"Guess I've been badly fooled. I came up with him outside the bluff
when it was getting light, and he stopped his team. Said he was
quietly driving home when he heard somebody riding after him, and as
he'd once been roughly handled by mean whites, he tried to get away.
Then as I didn't know what to do, I allowed I'd keep him in sight until
Constable Flett turned up, and by and by we came to a deserted shack.
There's a well in the bluff behind it, and the buck said his team
wanted a drink; they certainly looked a bit played out, and my mare was
thirsty. He found an old bucket and asked me to fill it."

"You didn't leave him with the horses!"

"No, sir; but what I did was most as foolish. I let him go and he
didn't come back. See how I was fixed? If I'd gone into the bluff to
look for him, he might have slipped out and driven off, so I stood by
the beasts quite a while. It strikes me that team wasn't his. At last
Flett rode up with another trooper. It seems Steve met them on the
trail."

George nodded. Flett had arrived before he was expected, because
Grant's messenger had been saved a long ride to his station.

"Well?" he said.

"When we couldn't find the buck, Flett sent his partner off to pick up
his trail, and then said we'd better take the team along and look for
you. I left where the trail forks; he was to wait a bit. Now, do you
think you can get up?"

George did so, and managed with some assistance to climb the slope,
where his companion left him and went off for the constable. Flett
arrived presently, and made George tell his story.

"The thing's quite plain," he said. "The fellow you saw jumped off
with the liquor, though one wouldn't expect him to carry it far. You
say he was tall; did he walk a little lame?"

"It was too dark to tell. I'm inclined to think I would know him
again."

"Well," explained Flett, "this is the kind of thing Little Ax is likely
to have a hand in, and he's the tallest buck in the crowd. I'll stick
to the team until we come