unusually merry--all except Pedro, who went
about his camp duties with a sullen troubled look on his face. Ever
since the night Mrs. Dickson had been found tightly bound in her tent,
his face had worn a troubled expression and his eyes were continually
turning to Thure, with a wondering questioning look in them, as if there
were something about the boy that he could not understand; and every
time he had heard the name of the skin map mentioned he had become
instantly alert, but always in such a way as not to attract attention in
his direction. Now, on this night, his was the only gloomy face in the
company.

"Looks as if we had given th' skunks th' slip at last," Ham said, as he
seated himself on his blanket, spread near the blazing fire, and leaned
back comfortably on his elbow. "An' I don't wonder; for I don't believe
even Kit Carson himself could have kept on our trail through all them
short twistin' gulches an' thick woods, through which we've ben passin'
for th' past tew days. Howsomever, I reckon, we hadn't better let up
none on th' caution bus'ness--But, let us forgit them skunks an' turn
our minds tew more pleasant things, like a song from th' Leetle Woman,"
and he turned to Mrs. Dickson. "I jest sorter feel hungry for music
tonight. Please sing 'Old Dan Tucker,' an' Th' Emergrants Lament' an'--"

"'Ben Bolt,'" laughed Thure.

"Shore," grinned Ham. "I couldn't go tew sleep without hearin' 'Ben
Bolt,' but let us have 'Old Dan Tucker' first."

Mrs. Dickson was in splendid voice that night and sang with unusual
fervor, even for her; and the men kept begging her for "just one more
song," until, at last, with a laugh, she declared she just couldn't sing
another song, and, bidding them all good night, hurried into her tent.

The guard was again doubled that night and instructed to keep the
camp-fire blazing brightly. Hammer Jones, Frank Holt, Mr. Randolph, and
Dill Conroyal, were to keep the first watch, through the darkest hours
of the night, before the moon came up. The night was clear and the
starlight bright enough to make objects dimly visible a few rods away.
The grove where they were encamped was not large and the guards were
stationed in its outskirts, where they could patrol all around it.

Hammer Jones' post was near the horses, on the opposite side of the
grove from the lake. About twenty rods from him, out on the open valley
stood a large tree, with three or four smaller trees growing around it.
In t