tled himself down and--quickly now, in response to a shout from the
Indians above him--drew his arrow to the head.

Chris tried to close his eyes, but his nerves and muscles were rigid as
the bow twanged, and he noted that the arrow passed like a flash, high
up above his head, as he saw the savage spring up standing on the ledge,
clap his hand to his breast, and curving himself backward as his knees
bent, fall outward and come down to strike the side of the cliff a
couple of dozen yards away, level with the stone to which his intended
victim clung. Then he bounded off to descend swiftly, drawing himself
up like a ball, and pass out of sight, but only to fall with a sickening
crash not far from where a little puff of smoke had darted out in the
bottom of the valley, to be followed by a sharp crack which echoed from
the cliffs and re-echoed twice, to mingle with a chorus of yells from
the edge where a score of Indians stood peering over to try and see
where their companion had struck.

CHAPTER FORTY TWO.

HOW TO TURN ROUND.

There was another puff of smoke, and another, followed by their cracks
and echoes; a few moments' pause, and two more, with the result that
every Indian on the ledge disappeared, two of them falling prone, to lie
motionless, the others to hurry to where their companions held the reins
that had been passed to them.

Chris saw nothing of this, but at every report coming from down in the
depression his heart leaped, knowing as he did that the sharp cracks
were the reports of rifles, and that these could only be fired by his
friends.

From clinging there half stunned and perfectly inert, he felt a thrill
of energy begin to move within him--a thrill which became a spasm as all
at once he saw something moving that looked like an animal crawling over
the edge of the cliff about fifty feet diagonally away from where he
lay.

As the object passed from behind some intervening trees he could see
plainly enough that it was an Indian grasping a bow, and the top of his
quiver could be seen above his shoulder.

Chris was alert now, and grasped the fact that this was another of the
enemy making his way down to a big patch of pensile growth which would
afford him cover, from whence he could direct his arrows either at his
watcher or at those who had fired upward from the valley.

"Could I?" he asked himself, with the desire for life once more
throbbing strongly in his veins.

He began to prove his po