e to take," smiled Dick.
"Let's see if we can't make it work."

Onward again they went, halting when Prescott gave the word.
Walking backward, they were soon at the oak with the low-hanging
limb.

"I'll try it first," proposed Dick, "and see if it's easy enough.
Don't walk around here and make enough tracks to call the attention
of the whites to the fact that we stopped here."

Dick made a bound, catching the limb fairly. Three or four times
he swung himself back and forth, until he had gained enough momentum.
Then he let go, on the last swing, landing on his feet well behind
the bushes. Dave came next, Tom following. Now the three Indians
hurried on again, Big Injun Dick in the lead as before.

"If we do throw them off, Greg's fighting men will have a hard
job hitting the trail again," chuckled Tom.

"If they don't find our trail, Dick, where are you headed for?"
whispered Dave.

"For the road and home," laughed Dick. "Then, while they're trying
to figure out where we've gone, we fellows will be washing up
for supper."

"I'd like to hear Old Greg grumbling if the 'double' does throw
'em off the trail altogether," grinned Darrin. "Dick, I think
we've more than half a chance to get away."

"We have about four chances out of five of slipping away from
Greg's soldiers," predicted Prescott.

For ten minutes Dick and his two braves plodded on. There were,
as yet, no audible sounds of pursuit.

"We caught 'em, surely enough, that time," chuckled Tom. "Going
to hit for the road now, Dick?"

"We can't reach the road until our hour is up; we're bound to
keep to the woods," Prescott replied. "However, you'll note that
I am taking a course that will gradually lead us to the road."

"Right-o," nodded Reade, after taking a look at their surroundings.
All the members of Dick & Co. had spent so much of their time
in the woods that they knew every foot of the way.

"I wonder where that valiant band of whites is, anyway?" muttered
Dave. "I haven't heard a sound of them."

"You may hear their battle yell any minute," Dick whispered.
"Be careful not to talk loudly enough to give them any clue."

For two or three minutes more Dick led the way. Of a sudden he
halted---right up against a huge surprise. For the boys had suddenly
broken into a little circular clearing, not much more than thirty
feet in diameter. Near the center of this clearing, under a flimsy
shelter he had made of poles and branches, crouched Amos Garwoo