k that for a
time Chris could make out nothing of the sides; but in time the strip of
purply-black sky gemmed with stars became wider, the edges not so
ragged, and all at once it struck the boy that they were not climbing
over stones, for the sound of the hoofs was deadened.

This lasted for a time, during which Chris began to breathe more easily
as he looked about him and questioned himself as to where he was, while
little by little the facts came to fit themselves together like the
pieces of a puzzle which now seemed very simple, so that it only needed
a fresh act on the part of the mustang to make all clear.

Fully a couple of hours must have passed since the wild hunt in which he
had been the quarry; but there it all was now, as the pony stopped
suddenly, lowered its head, and began to crop steadily with the sounds
so familiar to the hearer, at the soft grass down to which Chris now
sprang, to stand looking about him.

"Of course," he said. "We must have climbed up here to what father
called the tableland, and somewhere farther on, I suppose, we should
come to the edge of the cliff and look down into the valley with the
openings facing one.

"But not now," he said, with a shudder, as he thought of the
perpendicular character of the cliff-faces.

"Yes, that's all clear now; the Indians must have come along here while
I was going along the gulch, and soon after I had passed they got down
and turned the other way, making for the valley, and getting in perhaps
before my people had secured all the stores and things. Oh, what have I
done?" he cried bitterly. "Failed--horribly failed! Now how am I to
find out what has happened since? Has there been a terrible fight? Can
I go down now and see?

"No--no--no," came three dreary answers. "Part of the Indians may be
down there by the built-up cliffs; the others will be coming back soon;
and what could I do in this darkness, with it far darker in the valley?

"If I only knew what has happened since!" he said, with a groan full of
despair, as, dropping down upon the soft turf, half-sitting,
half-kneeling, he gazed in the direction where he supposed the great
hollow to be, listened to the _crop_--_crop_--_crop_ of the grazing
beast, and wondered how long it would be before the daylight came.

It was long--a long and weary time, for there was no sleepy sensation
now. Chris had had his first taste of a very real danger. He could not
hide from himself the knowledge