ty. At the same time he could not forget that
one of the most improbable acts of the Sioux would be to give him any
chance at all to escape.

It was more than likely that Motoza had laid the temptation in his way,
that it might serve him as a pretext for shooting his prisoner. Fred
resolved, therefore, to be careful in all that he did. The necessity of
drinking and bathing his face was his excuse for walking out to the
border of the ledge and letting himself down to the rock underneath.
There he dipped up what water he needed in the palms of his hands, and
while doing so scanned every part of the canyon in his field of vision.

He noted the narrow strip of sky far aloft, the tumbling waters above
and below where he stood, the black boulders protruding their heads
above the torrent which flung itself fiercely against them, the craggy
walls of the canyon, but nowhere did he catch sight of the Sioux who had
brought him hither. None the less, Fred felt so certain his black eyes
were watching him from some hidden point that he did not yield to the
temptation to leap to the nearest boulder and start on his flight for
liberty. Instead, he grasped the margin of the ledge and drew himself up
to his former place.

There, however, he paused with folded arms and surveyed the strange
scene more leisurely than before. He was anxious to discover the Sioux
if anywhere in sight, but the fellow did not show himself.

The roar of the canyon had been in his ears so long that it seemed like
silence, and it had lulled him to sleep hours before. He was still
suffering from hunger and longed for the return of his captor, for he
thought he would bring food with him.

Providentially the lad had stood in this position but a short time when
he looked aloft toward the sky. At the moment of doing so he uttered an
exclamation of affright and leaped back into the mouth of the cavern.
The next instant a boulder that must have weighed a ton crashed upon the
ledge where he had been standing, splintered off a number of pieces, and
plunged into the torrent below.

Fred did not try to make himself believe that the falling of this mass
of stone was an accident. Motoza or one of his allies had been on the
watch above for the appearance of the youth, and when the boulder had
been adjusted as well as possible it was tumbled over into the canyon.
Had Fred remained on the spot a few moments longer he would have been
crushed like an insect under the wheel of