ll travel fast when she is on her feet again," he said, "and I
don't like leaving her myself."

Felix took some provisions from the cook's wagon, gathered up his
blankets, slung his gun over his shoulder, and, as a last thought,
reached in for his violin. It would be good company in the dark, he
thought.

"Keep your gun cocked for Indians," were Abner's last instructions,
"look out for rattlesnakes at the water holes, and catch us up when
you can. Good luck to you."

The boy stood beside the trail and listened to the slow complaining of
the wheels and the shuffling of the feet of horses and oxen in the
dust as the whole train moved onward. For a little while he could hear
them and could see the bulk of the wagon tops outlined against the
stars, then the long roll of the prairie hid them and he was left all
alone in the wide, wild, empty plain.

CHAPTER IX

THE FIDDLER OF APPLE TREE LANE (_Continued_)

Felix tended the little horse as best he could, bringing her grass,
which she would not eat and water, which she drank gratefully. At
last, unbelievably tired, he built up the fire and lay down to sleep.
His heavy eyes were just closing when he saw a black shadow move
silently across the basin of the little watercourse and heard the
crunch of a pebble dislodged by a softly padding foot. As he sat up, a
big gray wolf, as unafraid as a dog, from long following at the heels
of the emigrant trains, came out into the circle of light. With its
head lowered and its eyes shining in the dark, it sat down--to wait.

The fire dwindled, for there was little to burn save the dried twigs
from the bushes that lined the stream, nor did Felix dare to leave the
horse long enough to gather a fresh supply. More gray figures came
through the dark to gather in a wide, waiting circle all about the
fire. Within the limits of their brutish minds lay the knowledge that
fires would die down, that strength of man and beast would fail, and
that, once a straggler could not go on, patient waiting always made
him their prey at last. Felix cocked his gun, took long aim at a pair
of green eyes glittering in the dark, but in the end lowered the
muzzle without firing. The flash of a rifle and its report carried far
over the level prairie, and there were other eyes that might be
watching for human stragglers, fiercer and hungrier eyes even than
were the wolves'. As the foremost animal drew a little closer, he took
up his violin and began to p