a steam-engine.

It was a startling occurrence, and in his weakened condition made him so
faint that he withdrew still further into the cavern and sat down,
trembling like a leaf. His hunger had vanished and hope almost departed.

"It will not do for me to leave the cavern in the daytime, for he is
waiting for me to do so. I can't do it at night without some one to
guide me. He means to keep me here until I die of starvation."

Fred had come really to believe this. He knew enough of Indian nature to
understand that the race rarely inflict instant death upon an enemy when
it is in their power to subject him to torture or slay in some horrible
fashion. Motoza had not slain him before because he was unwilling that
the one whom he hated so intensely should receive such mercy. It would
be a hundredfold sweeter to the Sioux to see his prisoner dying by
inches.

"If he has a plan for making father pay a ransom for me it will take a
number of days to bring the thing to an end. During all that time I am
to be left without a morsel of food; he would deprive me of water, too,
if he could."

It was a shocking conclusion to form, but the usually clear-headed boy
became convinced he was right.

"Poor Jack must be worried almost to death," he murmured, sitting on the
stones and giving rein to his fancies; "he will know that something has
gone wrong with me, but he can never know what it was. Hank will lay it
to Motoza, for he has said there is nothing too wicked for him to do,
but the cowman has no way of finding what has become of me, and he can't
make Motoza tell him. He and Jack may hunt for weeks without suspecting
where I am."

In this declaration Fred Greenwood, as is known, was not quite correct,
though the search of his friends was fruitless.

CHAPTER XX.

A CLIMB FOR LIBERTY.

A youth in the situation of Fred Greenwood cannot reason clearly, even
though he be right in his main conclusions. He had settled into the
belief that Motoza, the Sioux, had determined to subject him to a
lingering death through starvation; and yet if it were he--as
undoubtedly it was--who rolled the boulder into the canyon, it indicated
a wish to put the most sudden end possible to his existence.

It would be painful to attempt to describe the experience of the lad in
the cavern at the side of the canyon. As is often the case, his hunger
diminished and was succeeded by a dull indifference, in which the
suffering of the mind outwe