ffirmed Howard. "If it were
anything else he would not go so slowly."

"But, see! he has stopped?"

As Elwood spoke the Pah Utah rose in his canoe and stepped ashore. He
stooped and employed himself a moment with the canoe and then
disappeared.

"It cannot be that he has left us," said Elwood, in considerable alarm.

"No; I think he is hunting for game."

This seemed very reasonable, and the party waited patiently for his
return. No personal danger to himself could be expected, as he could not
be approached undiscovered by any hostile white man, and being an Indian
he could have no cause to fear anything from his own race.

Still there was a vague misgiving that everything was not right--that
something unusual would be the result of this separation--and each
member of the little party awaited, with more anxiety than he would have
confessed, some evidence of the intention of the Pah Utah.

CHAPTER XXXIV.

EXIT SHASTA.

The three whites were still gazing toward the eastern shore, intently
looking for some sign, or listening to some sound which might tell
something regarding Shasta, when they were startled by a loud whirring
or buzzing overhead, and looking up saw a large bird passing within a
few feet of them--so close that its claws could be seen curled up
against its body, as it made a sudden sweep to the right, frightened at
its near approach to its human enemies.

"Shoot it!" called out Elwood to Howard. "My gun isn't loaded, and it
will make us a good breakfast."

But the bird, whatever it was, did not choose to wait until the heavy
rifle could be brought to bear upon it; and by the time Howard had
fairly got the idea through his head, it was skimming away over the
country toward the Coast Range.

But a sharper eye and an unerring aim was leveled against it, and as
they were watching its flight it suddenly turned over and over, its
great wings going like the arms of a windmill as it dropped swiftly to
the earth; and, as it disappeared in the trees and undergrowth, the
crack of a rifle came across the intervening space.

"That was Shasta!" exclaimed Elwood in delight.

"Certainly, we might have known what he was after. He thinks we do not
admire fish as a steady diet and has gone after fowl for us."

"I don't know about that," said Elwood, who sometimes seemed to
alternate with Howard in his knowledge of the ways of the wood. "I can't
see that there was any more chance of seeing birds there