so that he had fully learned the lesson
which such an experience should teach everyone. He knew of the impending
trouble among the Indian tribes, and was always on the alert. It was not
long, therefore, before he came upon signs which told him something was
amiss.

In the corner of a natural clearing, near one of the small streams, he
discovered a dozen of the cattle lying dead. It was not necessary for
him to dismount and examine the ground to learn the cause of such
slaughter. The footprints of ponies near by, the bullet wounds, and
other indications answered the question that came to his lips at the
first glimpse of the cruel butchery.

"The spalpeens!" he exclaimed wrath-fully. "They niver had a better
friend than Mr. Starr, and that's the shtyle in which they pays him for
the same. Worrah, worrah, but it's too bad!"

Riding cautiously to the top of the next elevation, the young rancher
saw other sights which filled him with greater indignation and
resentment. A half mile to the northward the entire herd of cattle,
numbering several hundreds, were scurrying over the plain in a wild
panic. The figures of several Sioux bucks galloping at their heels,
swinging their arms and shouting, so as to keep up and add to the
affright, left no doubt that Mr. Starr's fine drove of cattle was gone
beyond recovery. The result of months of toil, expense, and trouble were
vanishing as they sometimes do before the resistless sweep of the
cyclone.

The blue eyes of the Celt flashed, as he sat in the saddle and
contemplated the exasperating raid. Nothing would have pleased him
better than to dash with several companions after the marauders and
force them to a reckoning for the outrage. But eager as he was for such
an affray, he was too wise to try it alone. There were five or six of
the horsemen, and he was no match for them.

Besides this, a more alarming discovery broke upon him within a minute
after observing the stampede. From the clump of wood on his right, along
the edge of the stream, only a few hundred yards away, he detected the
faint smoke of a camp-fire. The Sioux were there.

The sight so startled Tim that he wheeled his pony short around and
withdrew behind the elevation he had just ascended, fearing he had
already been observed by the red men.

Such undoubtedly would have been the fact had any of the turbulent Sioux
been on guard, but the occasion was one of those rare ones in which the
warriors acted upon the the