g down there. Now there were two of them. With what an ugly
snarl they greeted each other. Still, that snarl was a comfort; for it
proved them to be really coyotes. At least so thought Glen. Just then
the boy sneezed. He couldn't have helped it to save him, and at the same
moment the moon shone out. The coyotes had disappeared. Perhaps they
thought he would fire at them, as Binney Gibbs had. But they needn't be
afraid. He wasn't going to alarm the camp on account of coyotes.

Another cloud swallowed the moon, and again Glen thought he could
distinguish a black object moving through the shadows. Although he
strained his eyes, and watched intently, almost holding his breath in
his excitement, he could see only one object, and it certainly was
moving towards him. Where was the other? If he only dared fire at that
one! The boy clutched his rifle nervously. The coyote came sneaking on,
very slowly, frequently stopping and remaining motionless for several
seconds; but Glen never took his eyes from it. If he only had, just long
enough to give one look at the human figure creeping noiselessly towards
him from behind; but no thought of danger from that direction entered
his head.

As the Indian, gliding up behind the young sentry, reached a point from
which he could distinguish the outlines of the recumbent figure before
him, he cautiously raised himself on one knee, and fitted a steel-headed
arrow to the bow that had been slung on his back. In another instant it
would have sped on its fatal mission, and Glen's career would have ended
as suddenly as the snuffing of a candle-flame. He was saved by a gleam
of moonlight, that caused the Indian to sink, like a shadow, into the
grass. The coyote also remained motionless. Then the moon was again
obscured, and the Indian again rose to a crouching posture. He had
evidently changed his plans; for he no longer held the bow in his hand.
That gleam of moonlight had showed him that the sentry was only a boy,
instead of the man he had supposed, and he determined to try for a
captive instead of a scalp.

The next instant he sprang forward with the noiseless bound of a
panther, and the breath was driven from Glen's body as the Indian
lighted on his back, with one hand over the boy's mouth. The coyote rose
on its hind-legs, and leaped forward at the same moment. In a twinkling
its skin was flung over Glen's head, and so tightly fastened about his
neck that he was at once smothered and strangle