ess."

It came from his heart, and he repeated it over again.

How beautiful! How appropriate to the situation! The tears welled to his
eyes, and his heart overflowed at the repeated remembrance of the
all-merciful Father, whose eye alone saw him and whose ear alone heard
the thankfulness that would find expression.

He fell into a sweet reverie, from which he was awakened by a slight
noise below. He leaned his head over the ledge and listened. All at once
he heard a soft rush, and the next moment an Indian was holding on to
the edge of the tabular-like projection with one hand, while his other
was outstretched and placed upon his body.

"Is that you, Shasta?"

"Oogh! Sh-e-asta!"

"All right! I am waiting for you."

The hand closed upon his right arm; he was lifted bodily as if he were
an infant, and held in mid-air; and the next instant the Pah Utah
dropped lightly to the earth, and the two stood upon their feet. The
Indian uttered an exclamation which seemed to be one of inquiry, and the
boy made answer in this manner:

"I am ready for anything, Shasta; lead the way."

Instead of allowing him to walk, as Elwood confidently expected, the Pah
Utah flung him over his shoulder and then started on a long, loping trot
up the path. His extraordinary agility and muscular power made the
weight he carried of the same effect as if it were his rifle he was thus
transporting.

This rapid progress continued but a few minutes, when he sunk into a
walk--one of long strides, such as would have compelled the boy to a
moderate run to equal. He could tell that he was going up quite an
ascent, but toward what point it was impossible to tell. Occasionally
his hand or his foot struck the projecting rocks, and the rush of the
wind now and then against his face told when they were passing through
the more open space.

Wonderful indeed was the skill of the Pah Utah, that in the dense
darkness showed him, just where and just the outlay of strength that
would land his young white friend upon the shelf of safety. Equally
extraordinary was the woodcraft that brought him back to the precise
spot, and enabled him to thread his way through the impenetrable gloom
with the surety of the mountain chamois, which bounds over the
fastnesses of the Alps at midday.

Elwood was quiescent, for he know whose hand held him upon those brawny
shoulders, and he felt that the moccasined foot which touched the earth
so lightly was too sure to miss its