dren lining the crest of the bluff, and speaking in low, tense
voices when they spoke at all, and straining their eyes for the next
sight of the coming courier or the swift dash of the intercepting Sioux.
Well out now, and riding at the gallop, Blake and his half dozen, widely
separating so as to cover much of the ground, were still in view, and
Dade and his officers breathed more freely. "See what a distance those
beggars of Stabber's will have to ride," said the veteran captain to the
little group about him. "They dare not cross that ridge short of three
miles out. It's my belief they'll see Blake and never cross at all."

Then up rose a sudden shout. "There he is!" "There he comes!" "See!"
"See!" and fifty hands pointed eagerly northeastward where a little
black dot had suddenly popped into view out of some friendly, winding
watercourse, four miles still away, at least count, and far to the right
and front of Blake's easternmost trooper. Every glass was instantly
brought to bear upon the swiftly coming rider, Sandy's shrill young
voice ringing out from the upper window. "It isn't one of papa's men.
His horse is a gray!" Who then could it be? and what could it mean, this
coming of a strange courier from a direction so far to the east of the
travelled road? Another moment and up rose another shout.
"Look!"--"There they are!" "Sioux for certain!" And from behind a little
knob or knoll on the meridian ridge three other black dots had swept
into view and were shooting eastward down the gradual slope. Another
moment and they were swallowed up behind still another low divide, but
in that moment they had seen and been seen by the westernmost of Blake's
men, and now, one after another as the signals swept from the left, the
seven swerved. Their line of direction had been west of north. Now,
riding like mad, they veered to the northeast, and a grand race was on
between the hidden three and the would-be rescuers;--all heading for
that part of the low-rolling prairie where the lone courier might next
be expected to come into view;--friends and foes alike, unconscious of
the fact that, following one of those crooked arroyos with its stiff and
precipitous banks, he had been turned from his true course full three
quarters of a mile, and now, with a longer run, but a clear field ahead,
was steering straight for Frayne.

Thus the interest of the on-lookers at the bluff became divided. Women
with straining eyes gazed at the lonely cou