ot was uncertain, but with the check given the Sioux he would
have secured a start that promised everything.

Night was approaching, and, in the gathering gloom, it ought not to have
been difficult, with the advantage named, to throw his pursuers off the
trail. But he tarried until the chance was irrevocably gone.

The Sioux proved on more than one occasion, during their recent troubles
in the West, that they were capable of daring, coolness, and heroism,
and are quick to recover from a panic. When driven to bay they will
fight like wild-cats, and the bleaching bones of many a brave soldier
and officer bear eloquent witness to these qualities on their part.

Instead of breaking into a wild flight beyond the sheltering bank on the
other side of the stream, as the rancher expected them to do, they held
their places on the backs of their ponies, and, leaning over so as to
protect themselves, returned the fire of the white man.

Looking across the narrow stream, they saw the slouch hat rising in the
short grass, just behind the projecting muzzle of the Winchester, and a
couple of them aimed and fired.

But the rancher was too alert to be caught in that fashion. The moment
he observed the action of the red men, he dropped his head behind the
swell of earth, and the bullets clipped the grass and scattered the dirt
harmlessly within a few inches of his crown.

"Be careful!" called the anxious wife, who read the meaning of the
flying soil; "they will hit you."

"Have no fear of me," replied the husband, without looking around; "I am
all right; keep back where you are and hold yourself ready to ride as
fast as you can when I give the word."

The rancher now did that which he should have done in the first place:
he doffed his hat and laid it on the ground beside him. It was too
conspicuous under the circumstances, and the Sioux were on the watch for
it.

Waiting several minutes after the firing of the two shots, he stealthily
raised his head high enough to look through the grass in front. An
astonishing sight rewarded him.

In the brief interval that had passed after firing his rifle, the five
Indians had dashed over the swell with their ponies where the latter
were out of sight, and, flinging themselves on the ground, took
precisely the same position as his own. They were now as safe from harm
as himself. The duel was one of vigilance, caution, skill, and
watchfulness, with the chances against the white man.

The ke