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anxiety to cover the ground, he went with extreme caution. If it had not been for Dusty Star, he would have travelled much more quickly. As it was, he kept looking behind, impatiently waiting for the boy to catch up. Yet the speed at which they travelled did not seem to carry them out of reach of that mysterious danger threatening them behind. For a long time Dusty Star had observed that they were travelling uphill; so that when, at last, they reached more open ground and came out on the top of a cliff, at the edge of a deep ravine, he was not surprised. The place was utterly unknown to him; yet Kiopo appeared to be on familiar ground. He trotted on down a shelving ledge dividing the upper from the lower part of the cliff, and Dusty Star followed. At a point where the ledge turned abruptly round an angle of the cliff, Kiopo suddenly looked back, stopped, and showed his teeth. Dusty Star saw an Indian come out from the forest almost at the same point at which they themselves had left it, and then turn towards the ledge. A moment afterwards he was followed by several more. Without waiting to see if a still larger band now followed, Dusty Star ran quickly on, with Kiopo closely at his heels. As they proceeded, the gorge grew narrower. Suddenly the ledge came to an end, so that it was impossible for them to continue any further. Above them, rose a precipitous wall of rock. Below, the precipice plunged sheer to the bed of the ravine. To return by the way they had come, was to run straight into the arms of their pursuers. One chance only remained: to leap the chasm before them. It was not more than could be cleared by a vigorous jump; but down below was a terrifying depth where the shrunken stream sent up a hollow sound among the stones. If, after jumping you failed to make good foothold, you would go down to almost certain destruction in the black throat of the gorge. Dusty Star was fully alive to the danger. But he knew that a still greater danger was coming on behind. He pressed himself against the rock at his back, in order to make the most of the few steps possible for a run, drew a deep breath, and then took a flying leap over the chasm. He heard the dull roar of the water, he saw the yawning blackness below, and then found himself clinging for dear life to the roots of a stone pine on the opposite bank. He pulled himself into safety, and looked back, expecting to see Kiopo follow him at once; but Kiopo di
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