l, no; we'll wait right hyar an' git 'em if they come back."

"Do you think they will?" asked the doctor, trying to sound fierce and
eager.

"Can't never tell what a Injun'll do. They left ye tied up, an' mebby
want yer h'ar plumb bad. Reckon mebby I ought ter go 'round an' warn th'
rest o' th' boys ter keep thar eyes peeled an' look sharp fer 'em;
'specially them nigh th' animals. Bet ye stood up when ye heard 'em?"

"Yes, I did; but I'll never do it again!"

"Thought so. Now you lay low out hyar till I tells th' others. Be back
soon," and before any reply could be made the corporal had become
swallowed up in the night. The weather was not warm, yet Doctor Whiting
sweat copiously, and after he had been relieved and sent back to the
encampment he had great trouble in falling asleep.

Hank Marshall slipped up behind Jim Ogden as that person came in, and
imitated the significant twang. Jim jumped a foot in the air and then
bent over, convulsed with silent laughter.

"Dang ye, Hank; I don't know how ye do it!" he exclaimed. "I never heard
th' like. Thar'll be one bunch o' greenhorns lyin' flat, an' all eyes
an' ears from now on. I war weak from laughin' afore I went out to
stumble over him. When th' guard war changed they couldn't hardly find
him, he war spread out so flat. Jest like a new born buffaler calf that
its maw has cached in a bunch o' grass. Bet ye could fool an Injun with
that thar twang."

"I've did it," said Hank, chuckling.

The next morning Dr. Whiting was quite a hero, and as the caravan left
the creek he rode by the side of Patience, talking until he had
thoroughly exhausted the subject. After he had left her to go
helter-skeltering over the prairie a mile ahead in eager and hopeful
search of buffalo, Hank Marshall rode up to the wagon and took his
place.

He listened to Patience's excited comment about the doctor's narrow
escape, and then, picking up the reins, twanged sharply, winked at her,
and rode off to the flanking line. She stared after him for a moment and
then stuffed her handkerchief into her mouth. When she had command over
herself again she turned indignantly toward her chuckling uncle.

"Just the same, it was a mean trick!" she declared.

"Giddap," said Uncle Joe, and chuckled all the more.

"But it was!"

"It learned 'em all a lesson," he replied. "May save their fool lives,
and ours, too. Giddap!"

It was a long haul to Turkey Creek, but the caravan made it and was
corral