endingly he stared up at a fretwork of bare brown branches
against a background of blue. Where was he? What had happened? Then a
throb of pain in his head cleared his senses and memory returned all too
vividly. His brows contracted in a black scowl, and slowly and painfully
he rolled over and got to his feet, staring about for his assailant. But
of the outlaw there was no sign save the broken crust where the axe had
plunged through. Nor was there any trace of the black fox save a little
spot of crimson and two or three black hairs where the animal had lain.

How long he had been unconscious he had no means of knowing, but it
could not have been long, or he would have been frost-bitten. As it was
he was merely chilled and numb from the cold. His head ached badly, and
passing a mittened hand over it he found a big lump where the axe had
hit him. Moreover, he felt sick to his stomach, dizzy and weak. But for
his physical ailments he had no thought. Wrath, black, boiling rage,
surged over him. He had been robbed! He had been treacherously
outwitted! For the moment it was the latter fact rather than the former
that was the cause of his hot resentment. He, Sparrer Muldoon, who had
lived by his wits ever since he could remember, had been caught napping!

"An' me wid de drop on him!" he exclaimed bitterly. "He put me down fer
de count, but it was a foul, an' Oi wasn't lookin' fer no foul. Serves
me right." He smiled bitterly. "Oi ought t'known better than t' give him
an openin'. Serves me right fer listenin' t' his spiel. If ever Oi get
de drop on him again he'll wish he'd never set eyes on Sparrer Muldoon."

This was idle boasting, and Sparrer knew it. The chances that he would
ever again set eyes on the wily redskin were exceedingly slim. Still, it
was possible that Pat and Alec might be able to pick up his trail, and
the sooner they were put wise to the affair the better. He would get
back to camp as soon as possible. He picked up his rifle, and even as he
did so a new thought flashed across his mind. Why tell of his experience
at all? Why mention the black fox? He could explain the bump on his head
by saying that he had slipped and fallen, striking his head against a
log. Pat and Alec need never know that he had lost the rare pelt for
them for all time, nor that he had been such a tenderfoot as to be
outwitted by an Indian on whom he already had the drop. Why say a word
about it? To tell would be likely to win for himself n