should betray himself.

When the splashing noise was heard again, it sounded almost beneath him,
and, yielding to a most dangerous curiosity, which, however, he could
not restrain, he reached one hand into the foliage, drew it aside and
looked down.

Not more than twenty feet distant he saw the figure of Lone Wolf, the
Apache chief!

He stood in the water up to his knees, and, at the moment the fugitive
looked, had passed a short distance beyond the tree, so that his back
only was visible. Had it been a few minutes sooner, the warrior would
have assuredly seen the white, scared face that peered upon him from
among the leaves. But, as it was, he was all unconscious of the fact
that he was so near the prize for which he and several of his best
warriors had been searching for hours.

Two of them had paused beneath the tree and carefully examined the
branches without discerning the hiding place, and they were now moving
forward again, carefully examining everything on each side of the stream
where it seemed possible for a cat, even, to conceal itself. Lone Wolf
would have given his right arm, almost, rather than have his prisoner
elude him. He had been completely deceived by that little artifice of
lameness, and it was not until a full half hour after Ned's
disappearance that he began to suspect that something was amiss. The
trail was taken up at once and followed without trouble to where it
entered the water. Here the real task began, for the hardness of the bed
of the creek prevented them from tracing the footsteps where the
clearness of the current would have enabled them to do so, had the
circumstances been otherwise.

Consequently, the only thing possible for them to do was to find the
place where he had taken to the land again. For this they hunted until
dark and renewed the work again in the morning. But as Ned had not yet
placed his foot upon dry land, the enterprise up to that moment was not
a success.

CHAPTER XIV.

PURSUED.

Ned Chadmund's only fear was that the chief would hear the throbbing of
his heart. He dared not draw his head into the tree, fearing that the
action would attract the notice of the Apache; so he remained as
motionless as the trunk of the tree itself, waiting for the danger to
pass. Finally, the Indian was heard moving forward again, and the
cramped and aching fugitive began to breathe more freely. He could
detect that soft rippling through the water, such as is made by an