! A
little more darkness and he would flee with his wife and child under its
friendly cover, and place a safe distance between them and their
enemies, before the latter could learn of their flight.

Several minutes passed without a demonstration on either side, but while
matters stood thus, a new danger presented itself to the rancher. Why
should the Sioux stay where they were? What was to prevent them moving
farther up or down the bank, under the screen it afforded, and crossing
unobserved? The winding course of the current gave every chance of doing
this, and surely they were not likely to forget such an obvious course.

The thought had hardly presented itself to the watcher when that very
thing was attempted. The one who essayed it, however, forgot the caution
he should have remembered.

The slowly settling night and the falling snow may have misled him, but
when the warrior rode his pony into the stream at a point considerably
above, Starr observed him at the moment he began descending the bank.

This was something that must be nipped in the bud. He shifted his
position to where the grass gave slightly better protection, and sighted
with the utmost care and deliberation.

The shot was successful, but not precisely as he counted upon. The
bullet, instead of striking the rider, pierced the brain of the pony,
who reared frantically, plunged forward on his knees, and rolled upon
his side, the Sioux dexterously saving himself by leaping away and
scurrying behind the swell before the white man could fire a second
time.

"If they try it at that point, they will do so at some other," was the
conclusion of the rancher, turning his gaze down stream. But the current
made such a sharp bend near at hand, that his view was shortened, and
the effort could be successfully made without detection on his part.

An unexpected diversion occurred at this moment. The pack-horse, that
had been contentedly cropping the grass near at hand and paying no heed
to what was going on about him, wandered toward the bank, and was in
imminent peril of being shot by the vigilant Sioux before he could be
turned away.

Mrs. Starr called sharply to him, and her voice caused the prostrate
husband to look around. The pony at that moment was ascending the swell,
to go down on the other side to the water, where he would have been in
plain sight of the red men.

Fearful that words would not check him, the rancher sprang up and,
bending his head to