e. Naturally keen-witted and trained in the subtlety of
the dusky men of the plains, he sought to do more than dispute over the
conditions of a proposed bargain. While thus employed, he used his
senses to their fullest extent. Without seeming to do so, he was
scrutinizing the hills just beyond the couple, on the ground in front of
him. He sought to learn whether any of their warriors were at hand.
They might have been, without his knowledge, but the fact that he saw no
sign of them led him to believe they were not within immediate call.

Had he been confronted by a single warrior instead of a couple, the
Texan would have attempted an exploit in which there was hardly one
chance in a hundred of succeeding. It was to seize the warrior, make off
with him, and then hold him as a hostage for the safety of Captain
Shirril.

True, this was a violation of the flag of truce, but under the
circumstances it would not have been one-tenth as flagrant as that by
which our government captured the famous Seminole chieftain Osceola, and
held him prisoner until his death; but with two doughty warriors to
combat, it would seem that nothing could be more foolhardy than any such
effort on the part of the Texan.

And yet Gleeson seriously asked himself whether it was not possible to
shoot one, and leaping upon the other, overcome and carry him off before
his friends could interfere. In referring to it afterward he admitted
its absurdity, and yet he would have made the attempt but for a trifling
discovery when almost in the act of taking the decisive step.

CHAPTER XXXIII.

DRIVEN TO THE WALL.

The discovery which checked Oscar Gleeson was the presence of nearly all
the Comanches within a hundred feet of the warriors that were holding
their conference with him. The signs could not be mistaken, and the
Texan abandoned the hopeless scheme he had formed.

The Texan thus found himself forced back upon the original proposition
of Wygwind, which was the ransom of the wounded captain for twenty
horses. The price under the circumstances was large, but it could not be
questioned that the principal individual concerned would have paid far
more, for "what will not a man give in exchange for his life?"

It remained to decide upon the method of carrying out the agreement, and
again the wily Wygwind displayed his shrewdness. When the Texan
referred in his offhand manner to himself and friends as bringing
forward the animals to be passed to