rt sprang up in gladness; it was the twilight,
and the blessed darkness would bring chance of escape. Seldom
has anyone watched the coming of night with keener pleasure. The
sun dropped down behind the swells, the gray twilight passed over
all the sky, and after it came the night, on black wings.

Fires sprang up on the plain, fires of buffalo chips lighted by
the Sioux, who were now busy skinning and cutting up the slain
buffaloes. Dick saw the fires all about him, but none was nearer
than a hundred yards, and, despite them, he decided that now was
his best time to attempt escape before the moon should come out
and lighten up the night.

He pulled himself painfully from the kind gully. He had lain
there hours, and he tested every joint as he crept a few feet on
the plain. They creaked for a while, but presently the
circulation was restored, and, rising to a stooping position,
with his rifle ready, he slipped off toward the westward.

Dick knew that great caution was necessary, but he had confidence
in the veiling darkness. Off to the eastward he could see one
fire, around which a half dozen warriors were gathered, busy with
a slain buffalo, working and feasting. He fancied that he could
trace their savage features against the red firelight, but he
himself was in the darkness.

Another fire rose up, and this was straight before him. Like the
others, warriors were around it, and Dick turned off abruptly to
the south. Then he heard ponies stamping and he shifted his
course again. When he had gone about a dozen yards he lay flat
upon the plain and listened. He was hardy and bold, but, for a
little while, he was almost in despair. It seemed to him that he
was ringed around by a circle of savage warriors and that he
could not break through it.

His courage returned, and, rising to his knees, he resumed his
slow progress. His course was now southwesterly, and soon he
heard again the stamping of hoofs. It was then that a daring
idea came into Dick's head.

That stamping of hoofs was obviously made by the ponies of the
Sioux. Either the ponies were tethered to short sticks, or they
had only a small guard, perhaps a single man. But as they were
with the buffaloes, and unsuspecting of a strange presence, they
would not detail more than one man to watch their horses. It was
wisdom for him to slip away one of the horses, mount it when at a
safe distance, and then gallop toward the mountains.

Dick sank d