save himself from his foes, ran the few steps
necessary to reach the animal. Catching hold of his bridle, he jerked
his head in the opposite direction, and, to teach him prudence,
delivered a vigorous kick. The startled animal headed toward the west
and broke into a gallop straight across the plain.

"Let him go," said the impatient owner, looking after him: "he is too
lazy to travel far, and we'll follow him soon."

"Why not do so now?" asked his wife.

"I fear that they are looking for such a move, and will be across before
we can gain sufficient start."

"But they may do so now."

"Am I not watching them?" asked the husband, beginning to creep up the
swell again, but pausing before he was high enough to discern the other
side.

"They may cross above or below, where you cannot see them," remarked the
wife, giving utterance to the very fear that had troubled him some
minutes before.

"They may do so, but I have just defeated such an attempt, and they will
probably wait a while before repeating it."

"Then we can have no more favorable time to leave them than now."

"Such would be the fact, if I only knew of a surety that they would wait
a while."

"I am afraid you are making a mistake, George."

"It may be, but my judgment is against what you propose. Suppose that,
at the moment of starting, they should appear on this side; they would
run us down within a few hundred yards."

"Are not our ponies as fleet as theirs?"

"Probably; but with Dot to look after, you would have more than your
hands full, and nothing could save us."

"I could manage her very well; but do as you think best. We can only
pray to Heaven to protect us all."

Looking to the westward, the rancher saw the pack-pony just vanishing
from sight in the gloom. Brief as was the time that he had left the
Sioux without watching, he felt that it had been too long, and he now
made his way up the swell until he could peer over at the other bank,
where the red men were awaiting the very chance he gave them that
moment.

The narrowest escape of his life followed. Providentially, his first
glance was directed at the precise spot where a crouching Sioux made a
slight movement with his rifle, which gave the white man an instant's
warning of his peril. He ducked his head, and had he not instinctively
closed his eyes, would have been blinded by the dust and snow thrown
against his face, as the leaden ball whizzed through the air, falling on
the prai