ssly as they had
advanced, and not until they had gotten beyond earshot, did they stop for
consultation as to their next move.

Bert and Tom felt their hearts beating high with excitement, but Melton
was as cool and impassive as though he were seated on the veranda of his
ranch.

While they waited for him to speak, he drew from its sheath a long
double-edged bowie knife and fingered it thoughtfully.

"It's a long time since I've done it," he mused. "I wonder if I can do
it now. I'll try it out first."

Rising, he went over to a tree about fifty feet away. At a height of six
feet from the ground, he cut out a circle of bark, about the size of a
saucer. The white patch stood out in strong contrast to the rest of the
tree. Returning to the boys, who had looked on puzzled at his action, he
planted himself solidly and took the bowie by the blade. A moment he
stood thus, measuring the distance. Then he raised the weapon and hurled
it at the bark. It whizzed through the air in a gleam of light, and
struck two inches inside the circle, where it hung quivering. It was a
marvelous bit of knife play, and Bert and Tom could hardly repress an
exclamation.

"That's all I wanted to know," muttered Melton, as he came back, after
pulling the knife from the tree and restoring it to its sheath. "It's a
little trick that has saved my life once or twice before on the plains,
and I wanted to make sure that I hadn't forgotten. I guess if I could
hit that circle, I could do for the Mexican.

"For as you boys may imagine," he went on, "I wasn't doing this thing for
pastime. We've got to get that sentinel out of the way. Of course, it
would be an easy thing to wing him with a bullet. But that makes a noise
and probably the camp is not far off. Our only chance lies in taking
them by surprise. If they once get wind of our coming we'll have as much
chance as a celluloid dog chasing an asbestos cat through Hades. I'd
rather take this fellow alive if we could, for we might be able to get
some valuable information from him. But I'm afraid he'd let out a yell
or shoot off his gun before we could get to him. I guess we'll have to
depend on this little persuader," he concluded, as he put his hand on the
shaft of the knife.

Bert had been thinking rapidly.

"Couldn't we save that as a last resort?" he ventured. "I think that
perhaps I might creep up on that fellow without his seeing me."

"But how?" asked Melton in surprise.