"If we are very careful, I think we can get home without trouble; but
although there must be white people--settlers and miners--in these
parts, still they are so scattered that we are less likely to see them
than we are the Indians."

"Boys," said Tim O'Rooney, who had not let his pipe go out since
morning. "Shall I give yez some good advice?"

Both expressed their eagerness to receive it.

"There bees plenty of the rid gintlemen yet in this counthry, and we
haven't got beyant them. If we goes paddling in this canoe when the sun
is shining overhead, some of 'em will see us, and if we don't put into
shore they'll put out after us--that they will."

"What is it that you propose, then?"

"That we turns the night into day, and slaaps and smokes and meditates
by sunlight, and does our traveling by moonlight, or what is bether,
without any light at all."

This proposal suited the boys exactly. It was so plainly dictated by
common sense that the wonder was they had not thought of it long before.
Elwood took the paddle in his hand and held it poised.

"Which way--east or west?"

Howard pointed to the left bank.

"That is the side where _they_ are," replied Elwood, referring to the
Indian party they had passed.

"And where _he_ is," meaning their good friend, the Pah Utah.

"To the left--to the left," said Tim. "Didn't I git into the worst
throuble of me life--always barring the repulse me Bridget give me--by
hunting in them parts?"

Elwood delayed no longer, but plied the oars with a dexterity that
showed his experience had not been lost upon him.

"You understand it quite well," said Howard approvingly.

"Yes; but my arms ache terribly."

"Ah! here we are."

The prow of the canoe moved as silently and easily into the undergrowth
as if it were water, and our friends at a step passed from every portion
of it to dry land.

As they intended remaining in their present quarters until darkness,
they took some pains to select a suitable place. They finally hit upon a
spot, on an incline of the river bank, and about a dozen yards distant.
Here the grass was green and velvety, and the wood so thick that they
had little fear of discovery, unless by some who had seen them land and
took the trouble to hunt them out.

It was about noon when they landed, and as they had all spent a wakeful
night, their first proceeding was so to arrange themselves as to enjoy a
quiet sleep. Terror was placed on duty as sentinel, and