ore seconds and we'll be there!
They can't catch us now!"

Then came a burst of flame from the earth in front of him. The white
mule gave a convulsive bound and fell dead in his tracks, while poor
Glen was flung far over his head to the ground, which he struck so
heavily as to partially stun him.

Without checking the speed of their ponies in the least, two stalwart
warriors bent over, and, seizing the boy by the arms, raised him between
them as they swept past. A moment later the entire band, minus only
their white mule, had again reached their place of concealment, and poor
Glen, breathless, bruised, and heart-broken with disappointment, was
more of a prisoner than ever. Besides this, Wolf-Tongue, the only one
amid all those stern-featured warriors who had shown the least particle
of pity for him, was wounded--a rifle-ball having passed through the
calf of one of his legs.

[Illustration: "TWO STALWART WARRIORS SEIZED HIM BY THE ARMS AND RAISED
HIM BETWEEN THEM AS THEY SWEPT PAST"]

This sudden derangement of his plans caused the leader of the war-party
to abandon them altogether, and decide upon a new one. It would be
useless to attempt to surprise the stage and station now. Besides, it
might be just as well to leave the trail in peace for a few days, in
order that the large party of white men, of whom the scouts had just
brought information, might come on with less caution than they would use
if constantly alarmed. He would send runners to the villages of the
Kiowas, Arrapahoes, and Comanches, and tell them of the rich prize
awaiting their combined action. In the meantime he would return to his
own village and raise a war-party that, in point of numbers and
equipment, should be a credit to the great Cheyenne nation.

So the runners were despatched, and the rest of the party set out in a
northwesterly direction towards their distant villages on the American
Fork.

Shortly before the Indians halted for the night, even Glen almost forgot
his heartache and painful weariness of body in the excitement of seeing
his first buffalo, and witnessing an Indian buffalo-hunt on a small
scale. It was just at sunset, when the scout, who rode ahead, signalled,
from the top of an elevation, by waving his blanket in a peculiar
manner, that he had discovered buffalo.

Obeying a command from their leader, half a dozen warriors at once
dashed ahead of the party; and, joining the scout, disappeared over the
ridge. As the others g