outh.

The veteran would have considered it right, under the circumstances, to
do such a thing.

"Since the fear of our testimony restrained him, why did he not seek to
remove _us_ in the same manner, when he has had more than one
opportunity?"

"And there you're off again. Motoza wouldn't have had any trouble in
wiping out two young tenderfeet like you, but he'd likely run agin a
snag when he tried it on _me_!"

The hunter shut his lips and shook his head with eloquent earnestness.

"S'pose he'd done such a thing," he added, angrily; "don't you see that
when the Government larned, as it would be sure to larn, that three
persons had been killed near the reservation by some of the Injins,
there would be the biggest kind of excitement? It would put its best
officers at work, and never let up till everything was brought to light.
You see that, Motoza not being the only Injin in these parts when the
thing was done, the officers would have some of the other varmints to
work on, and they'd got the whole story from 'em, which would mean the
hanging of the Sioux."

Jack saw the force of his friend's words. Even in this wild region,
where one would naturally suppose he was beyond reach of the law, the
man who committed a grave crime faced a serious risk. Certainly there
was much less danger in "removing" one person than three.

"As it is, Motoza has placed himself in a bad position, but it would
have been tenfold worse had he shot you and me."

Hank nodded his head, but qualified his assent:

"He could have picked you off, but not _me_, and he knows that he would
have had me on his trail without waiting for the officers to help."

"But he must face the same thing as it is."

"Don't you see that he had to make the ch'ice atween doing nothing at
all or tackling the younker? The Sioux is such an imp and is so crazy
for revenge that he made up his mind to chance it the least he could,
and he went for the tenderfoot that he hates the most."

Jack tremblingly asked the question that had been in his mind for some
minutes.

"Do you think he shot Fred?"

The guide slowly turned his head and looked fixedly at the youth before
replying:

"Wouldn't you've heerd his gun?"

The question sent a thrill of hope through the heart of Jack, but it was
quickly succeeded by the dull torture that was there before. True, he
would have heard the report of a rifle if fired anywhere near him during
the afternoon, but a treacherous Sio