all, muscular negress, whom an ordinary man might hesitate to
make angry. She passed to another part of the room, after muttering the
words, and seemed to feel no further interest in a subject which ought
to have made her blood tingle with excitement.

"If the Comanches are hovering anywhere in the neighborhood," said Mrs.
Shirril in her gentle way, "it is in the hope of running off some of the
cattle; you have them all herded and under such careful care that this
cannot be done. When the Indians find you have started northward with
them, they will follow or go westward to their hunting grounds; surely
they will not stay _here_."

"I wish I could believe as you do."

"And why can't you, husband?"

"Because Indian nature is what it is; you understand that as well as I.
Finding that they cannot steal any of our cattle, they will try to
revenge themselves by burning my home and slaying my wife and
servant."

"But they have tried that before."

"True, but their failures are no ground to believe they will fail
again."

"It is the best ground we can have for such belief."

CHAPTER II.

AN ALARMING INTERRUPTION.

"If you think it best that I shall stay at home, I will do so," said the
young man, striving hard to repress the disappointment the words caused
him.

"No; you shall not," the wife hastened to interpose; "everything has
been arranged for you to go with your uncle."

"Was there ever a wife like you?" asked the captain admiringly; "there
is more pluck in that little frame of yours, Edna, than in any one of my
men. Very well; Avon will go with us, but I can tell you, I shall be
uneasy until I get back again."

"We have neighbors," she continued, still busy with her sewing, "and if
we need help, can get it."

"I declare," observed the captain grimly, "I forgot that; Jim Kelton's
cabin is only eight miles to the south, and Dick Halpine's is but ten
miles to the east; if the redskins do molest you, you have only to slip
in next door and get all the help you want."

As we have said, it was a chilly night in early spring. The moon was
hidden by clouds, so that one could see but a short distance on the open
prairie. A fitful wind was blowing, adding to the discomfort of
outdoors, and causing the interior of the cabin to be the more
comfortable by contrast.

But a few rods to the westward was a growth of mesquite bush, in which
the two mustangs that the captain and his nephew expected to ride were