ave made to the
trail," Garth went on. "I figured he would be on my left hand--his
right; it's the position a man instinctively takes. You can't shoot so
well over your right. So I crawled along the path, inch by inch on my
stomach----"

"Garth!" she cried in horror. "If I had known!"

"Exactly!" he said. "So I didn't tell you. But there was no danger,
really. It was too dark for him to shoot me--pitchy dark there, under
the trees. I couldn't see an inch before my nose; and as I went I felt
with my hand out in front of me, both sides the path. Thistledown was
nothing to the lightness of my touch.

"Sure enough, no more than thirty yards behind the house here, I touched
his moccasin--you couldn't mistake the feel of a moccasin. And, just as
I expected, he was sitting on my left. That was a pretty good guess
if----"

"Oh! Go on! Go on!" she begged.

"He had his back against a tree. I listened for his breathing. They
breathe very light--tubercular, probably. Finally, I decided he was
asleep.

"Well, I mosied around behind him; and then I grabbed him. He let out
just one little squawk; and then he shut his mouth. He struggled;
slippery as an oiled cat, but not very strong. Finally I got him gagged
with my handkerchief. Then I tied him up with my rope; round and round;
just like the stories we read when we were kids. I expect I pinched him
some; that was for poor old Cy.

"Afterward I sat down opposite him; and lit my pipe; and thought over
what I'd do with him, now I had him. We certainly weren't going to feed
his ugly phiz; and he was no use as a hostage, for Grylls wouldn't give
a hang what became of him. Meanwhile I was relieving my mind, by telling
him a few plain truths about making war on dumb beasts. Hope he
understood!"

Natalie concealed a smile. "What did you say?" she asked.

"Never mind," said Garth. "It was more forcible than polite. It's been
sizzling inside me for two days. Finally I decided to return him to his
own camp."

"Their camp!" exclaimed the startled Natalie.

"Not all the way," he said; "but just where they'd see him in the
morning. Horrible example, and all that, you know. So I hoisted him on
my back, and carried him around to the brook. I propped him against a
tree there, with his face turned home." Garth chuckled. "To finish the
thing up brown, I suppose I ought to have pinned a placard on his
breast: Notice! This is the fate that awaits all who--_et cetera_. But I
didn't think t