tmost,
he could not arrive before late at night--so late, indeed, that no help
would be sent out before the morning, and they could not reach the
beleaguered fugitives until late on the following day.

"Can they hold out until then?"

That was the question which was ever in the young rancher's mind and
which he dare not answer as he believed the probabilities required.

There was no getting away from the fearful truth. The vigilance of his
father and Tim might enable them to stand off the Sioux as long as
daylight lasted. Each had an excellent magazine rifle, for it will be
remembered that he had exchanged weapons with his young friend, but
there was not only a formidable party of bucks surrounding them,
shutting off all possibility of their slipping off during the darkness,
but other Sioux were in the neighborhood who could be readily summoned
to the spot.

Darkness is the favorite time with the red men when moving against an
enemy, and they would probably make no determined demonstration until
the night was well advanced. Then, when they should rush over the
bowlders, nothing could save the fugitives. Should this emergency arise,
Warren Starr felt that everything was lost, and he was right.

He weakly hoped that Jack would recover from his lameness, but all know
how vain is such an expectation. The injury rapidly grew worse, so that
when the animal dropped his gait to a trot and then to a walk, Warren
had not the heart to urge him farther.

Slipping from the saddle he examined the hurt. It was near the fetlock
of the left hind leg. The skin was abraded; the ankle evidently had been
wrenched. It was swollen, and when the youth passed his hand gently over
it, the start and shrinking of the creature showed that it was
excessively painful to him.

"It's no use, Jack," said the lad; "I know you would give your life for
me, but you can't travel on three legs, and I'm not going to make you
suffer when it can do us no good."

Manifestly there was but one course open--that was to abandon the pony
and press on as fast as he could on foot. Jack could get along for a day
or two, and his master would not forget to look after him on the first
opportunity.

There was no call to burden himself with the saddle and bridle, but they
would prove an incumbrance to the animal if left upon him, and his owner
was too considerate to commit the oversight.

In riding so fast the young rancher had followed the general course of
the