k the most
dangerous times will be after we have camped and before night comes on,
and at daybreak before we makes our start."

Two more days passed quietly, and a feeling of hope pervaded the caravan
that the Indians had ridden on and sought for other prey. But Abe
assured them that they must not relax their precautions, and that the
failure of the Indians to attack was no proof whatever that they had
abandoned their intention to do so.

"An Injin is always most dangerous just when you ain't thinking of him.
You may be sure we have been watched, although we haven't seen no one,
and that seeing as we are on guard they are waiting for us to become
careless again; or it may be they have fixed upon their place of
attack, and if so, you may bet yer life it is a good one. Above all
things you men impress upon the women and children that in case of a
sudden attack they shall each take refuge at once in the waggons, in the
places allotted to them, and that they shall do it with out any
squealing or yelling; there's nothing bothers men and flurries them,
just as they have got need to be cool and steady, as the yelping of a
pack of women. Just impress on them as it does no good, and adds to the
chances of their getting their throats cut and their har raised."

The hunter's orders were very strongly impressed upon the women and
children, and even the latter were made to feel thoroughly the
importance of silence in case of an attack.

Upon the following day they came upon a spot where the trail crossed a
deep hollow; the sides were extremely steep, the bottom flat and swampy.
Rough attempts had been made by preceding travellers to reduce the
steepness of the bank, but it was in no way improved thereby; the upper
edge was indeed more gradual, but the soil cut away there, and shovelled
down, had been softened by subsequent rains, while the torn surface of
the bottom, and the deep tracks left by the wheels, showed how the teams
had struggled through it. They explored for some little distance up and
down to see if an easier point for crossing could be discovered, but
came to the conclusion that the spot at which the tracks crossed it was
the easiest, as in most places the bank had been eaten away by winter
rains and was almost perpendicular. They had reached this spot late in
the evening, and prepared to cross soon after daybreak "You will have
to fix up three teams to each waggon," Abe had said, "and take one over
at a time. We w