deliberation, said:

"They are thirty-two, because I've counted 'em. They're comparatively
fresh, because their ponies are running straight and true. They're
Sioux, as I know from the style of their war bonnets, and they're after
us, as I know from the way they're riding."

"But look the other way, Jim, and see how much nearer the mountains have
come!"

"Aye, lad! They stand up like a fort, and if we reach 'em in time we may
stave off our pursuers. They're coming fast, and they're spreading out
in a long line now. That helps 'em, because it's impossible for
fugitives to run exactly straight, and every time we deviate from the
true course some part of their line gains on us."

"I see a huge, rocky outcrop on the mountain side. Suppose we always
ride for that."

"Something to steer by, so to speak. A good idea. We won't push the
horses hard at first, because it will be a long time before they come
within rifle shot of us. Then maybe we'll show 'em a spurt that'll
count."

But it was hard for Will not to use the utmost speed at once, as every
time he looked back he saw that the Sioux were gaining, their figures
and those of their horses, horse and rider seemingly one, always
standing out black and clear against the rosy dawn. But he knew that
Boyd was right, and he tried hard to calm the heavy beating of his
pulses.

The whole horizon was now lighted by a brilliant sun and the earth was
bathed in its beams. Flight and pursuit went on, unabated, and the
hunter and the boy began to increase the speed of their horses, as they
saw that the Sioux were gaining. They had been riding straight as they
could toward the stony outcrop, but in spite of everything they curved a
little now and then, and some portion of the following line drew closer.
But they were yet a full two miles away, and the mountains were drawing
much nearer. Trees on the slopes detached themselves from the general
mass, and became separate and individual. Once Will thought he caught a
flash of water from a mountain torrent, and it increased the
desirability of those slopes and ridges. How sheltered and protecting
they looked! Surely Boyd and he could evade the Sioux in there!

"We'll make it easily," said Boyd, and then he added with sudden
violence. "No, we won't! Look, there on your right, Will!"

Four warriors on swift ponies suddenly emerged from a swell scarcely a
quarter of a mile away, and uttered a shout of triumph. Perhaps they
were stray h