eople, to the land of the Pale-faces. In his ignorance he regarded the
place of his proposed exile much as we do the interior of Africa or the
North Pole, one only to be reached by a weary journey, that few ever
undertook, and fewer still returned from.

He was somewhat cheered by Glen's promise to join him at the end of a
year, and that then, if he chose, he should certainly return to his own
people. Still, it was a very melancholy and forlorn young Indian who
shook hands, for the last time, with the white boy at sunrise the next
morning, and said, "How, Glen," in answer to the other's cheery
"Good-by, Lame Wolf. Take care of yourself, and I hope you will be able
to talk English the next time I see you."

Then, after bidding good-bye to the Winns and his other friends of the
post, the boy sprang on Nettle's back and dashed after the wagon-train
that was just disappearing over a roll of the prairie to the westward.

All that morning Glen's attention was claimed by Mr. Hobart, or "Billy"
Brackett, or somebody else, who wished to learn more of the details of
his recent experience; but late in the afternoon he found himself riding
beside Binney Gibbs. For the first time in their lives the two boys held
a long and earnest conversation. From it each learned of good qualities
in the other that he had never before suspected; and by it a long step
was taken towards the cementing of a friendship between them.

So engaged were they in this talk, that the animals they were riding
were allowed insensibly to slacken their pace, until they had fallen a
considerable distance behind the train. They even stopped to snatch an
occasional mouthful of grass from the wayside, without opposition on the
part of their young riders. These knew that, whenever they chose, a
sharp gallop of a minute or two would place them alongside of the
wagons, and so they carelessly permitted the distance between them and
the train to become much greater than it should have been.

Suddenly a dazzling ray of light flashed, for the fraction of a second,
full in Glen's eyes, causing him to start, as though a pistol had been
fired close beside him. He glanced hurriedly about. Not a wagon was in
sight; but he knew the train must be just over the rise of ground he and
Binney were ascending. At that same moment the mule threw up its head
and sniffed the air uneasily. Glen's second glance was behind him, and
it revealed a sight that, for an instant, stopped the beat