he words of Tom Hardynge, declining the
assistance of his friend, were understood by Lone Wolf; but, treacherous
and faithless himself, he regarded them as only a part of a trap in
which he was to be caught, and his whole purpose was to get out of the
dilemma as quickly as possible. However hopeful he might be in a single
hand-to-hand encounter with one of the men, he was not vain enough to
think that he could master both. In their struggling they had approached
quite close to the cliff, and Lone Wolf made a determined attempt to
throw Tom over. By a little feinting and dodging, he managed to get him
between himself and the edge and then began pressing him furiously.

"That's your game, is it?" exclaimed the scout. "If it is, sail in, and
may the best man win."

Both were striking very wildly, when, hastily parrying several blows,
Hardynge made a sudden rush, closed in, grasping the chief around the
waist, and, lifting him clear of the ground, ran to the edge of the
cliff and flung him over!

But Hardynge was outwitted. This was the very thing for which Lone Wolf
had maneuvered so slyly. The cliff was not more than twenty feet in
height, and when the hunter peered over the margin, expecting to see his
enemy dashed to pieces at a great depth below, he saw him land as
lightly as a panther upon his feet and then whisk out of sight among the
rocks.

"Thunder and blazes!" he exclaimed, when he comprehended the little
trick that had been played upon him. Jerking off his hat, he slammed it
impatiently to the ground, and turning to his comrade, said:

"Did you ever see a bigger fool than me?"

"Don't think I ever did," was the serious reply.

"Never thought what the Injun was after till it was too late to hinder
him."

"I knowed it all the time. This ere little chap could have seed as much
himself," was the tantalizing reply.

"Why didn't you sing out, then, when you seed me pick him up and start
to throw him over?"

"'Cause I thought you was only fooling. Do you know there's a reward of
five hundred dollars offered for Lone Wolf, dead or alive? See what you
have lost?"

"Who offered it?" demanded Tom.

"Colonel Chadmund told me that old Captain Alvarez, that owns a big
ranch near Santa Fe, lost a thousand cattle by a stampede that he had
got up, and he's the man that has promised a hundred times to give that
reward to whoever wipes out the chief."

"Anything else to tell?" said Hardynge, disgustedly.

"Yes.