busily crawling about. Above all the blue sky, with the sun now well
over the horizon, but not visible from where Bart lay, and having
exhausted all the things worthy of notice, he was beginning to wonder
how long Joses would be, when there was a sharp sound close at hand, as
if a stone had fallen among some more. Then there was another, and this
was followed by a low chirping noise like that of a grasshopper.

Bart responded to this with a very bad imitation of the sound, and,
crawling from his shelter, he followed the course taken by his companion
as exactly as he could, trying to track him by the dislodged stones and
marks made on the few patches of grass where he had passed through.
But, with a shrug of the shoulders, Bart was obliged to own that his
powers of following a trail were very small. Not that they were wanted
here, for at the end of five minutes he could make out the long bony
body of Joses lying beside one of the smaller masses of stone that
jagged the summit of the hill.

Joses was looking in his direction, and just raising one hand slightly,
signed to him to come near.

There seemed to be no reason why Bart should not jump up and run to his
side, but he was learning caution in a very arduous school, and
carefully trailing his rifle, he crept the rest of the way to where the
great stones lay; and as soon as he was beside his companion, he found,
as he expected, that from this point the eye could range for miles and
miles over widespreading plains; and so clear and bright was the morning
air that objects of quite a small nature were visible miles away.

"Well!" said Joses gruffly, for he had volunteered no information, "see
anything?"

"No," said Bart, gazing watchfully round; "no, I can see nothing. Can
you?"

"I can see you; that's enough for me," was the reply. "I'm not going to
tell when you ought to be able to see for yourself."

"But I can see nothing," said Bart, gazing eagerly in every direction.
"Tell me what you have made out."

"Why should I tell you, when there's a chance of giving you a lesson in
craft, my lad,--in craft."

"But really there seems to be nothing, Joses."

"And he calls his--eyes," growled the frontier man. "Why, I could
polish up a couple o' pebbles out of the nearest river and make 'em see
as well as you do, Master Bart."

"Nonsense!" cried the latter. "I'm straining hard over the plain.
Which way am I to look?"

"Ah, I'm not going to tell you."

"Bu