the sand, then listening with his ear
to the ground, and turning to beckon on the ambushed warriors. He even
remembered the way the yellow and red striped blinds of the log hut
flapped in the wind, and how the horse that was hobbled outside raised
his head from his hay, and pricked his ears uneasily, as the foe came
gliding nearer and nearer. Then their way of fighting--he had thought it
rather comic _then_--they hopped and pranced about like so many lively
frogs, but the butchery would not be rendered any more agreeable by
being accompanied by laughable gestures! And there was an almost naked
light-yellow savage, whom he recalled dancing the war dance--he tried
not to think of all this, but it came vividly before him.

'S-s-h--_Cave_!' cried Guy, suddenly, as he looked through the loophole;
'I can see just the top of one's head and feathers among the currant
bushes. I'll touch him up in a second.'

He raised his tiny spring pistol, and was just aiming, when Tinling,
almost beside himself, darted on him, and struck it out of his hand.
'What are you doing now?' he said, through his teeth. 'What is the good
of _irritating_ them?'

'Why, they _are_ irritated,' said Guy, 'or they wouldn't come.'

'If they are,' retorted Clarence, raising his voice, 'whose doing was
it? You can't say I had anything to do with putting up those defiances!
Haven't I always said I respected Red men? They've got feelings like us.
When you go and insult them, of course they get annoyed--who wouldn't, I
should like to know? I honour a chief like Yellow Vulture myself, and I
don't care if he hears me say so. I say I honour him!'

His voice rose almost to a scream as he concluded.

'I say, Tinling, I do believe you're in a funk!' said Guy, after a
moment of wondering silence.

'If you are, say so, and we shall know what to do,' added Jack, feeling
in his pocket. 'Are you?'

'Feel his hands,' suggested Guy.

'Look here,' said Clarence, dashing aside the obstacles before the door,
'I'm not going to stay here to be treated in this way. If it hadn't been
for your foolery in sticking up the notices we should have been friends
with the Indians now. I don't want to quarrel with any Bogallala. And
you have the cheek to ask me if I'm in a funk, and to want to feel my
hands. Well, it just serves you right--I'm going.'

'Well, go then; who wants you?' said Guy.

But softer-hearted Jack said, 'Clarence, you mustn't. You'll be safe in
here; but out t