to the fort.

The convicts were in evident haste to be gone, for their envoy had
hardly got inside before they began to file out, each bearing his gun
and other belongings.

Within ten minutes from the envoy's visit the last of the outlaws had
scaled the walls and was lost to sight.

The hunters waited for half an hour before they removed the barricade
from the door and let the fresh cool morning breeze into their stuffy
prison. Even then they did not venture outside, for they still feared
some trick on the part of the convicts. As the moments, passed quietly
by, however, without any sign of their foes, their fears began to
decrease.

"I am going to find out what has become of them," Walter at last
declared. "Unless we make certain now of what they are up to, we will
be afraid to venture outside for a week to come."

His companions in vain tried to dissuade him from his rash project, his
mind was made up and he turned a deaf ear to their words.

Shouldering one of the rifles, he made his way to the wall, clambered
over it nimbly and disappeared on the other side.

It was over half an hour before Walter returned. His companions had
begun to feel uneasy about him when he appeared on the top of the wall
and dropped down inside with a hearty cheer.

"Come out, all of you," he shouted, "there's nothing more to fear from
the convicts."

The little party crowded around him with eager questions.

"I followed them down to the landing," he said. "They had just shoved
off in their dugout and were headed back for their old camp and
paddling away for dear life.

"I had not long to wait before I discovered the reason for their haste.
Far up the stream was a big fleet of Indian dugouts coming down, there
must have been forty of them at least. Then all was as plain as print:
the convicts were aiming to get back to their ponies and make their
escape on them. Likely they would have done so if Indian Charley had
only warned them a little sooner, but they were too late."

"Go on," said Charley, eagerly, as Walter paused in his story.

"They had only got as far as that little island near this one, when
another big fleet of canoes appeared just ahead of them. I guess they
realized that they stood no show to make a successful fight for it,
crowded up as they were in the dugout; anyway, they ran ashore on that
little island and threw up mounds of sand and are lying behind them."

"Have the Indians attacked them?" Cha