ing
trees and brushwood. They had let him gallop past, but now they had
broken cover and were racing after him with menacing yells and savage
cries.

They had lost some moments in getting free from the bush, and he was
already well ahead of them; but their mounts had been rested, while his
own pony was panting heavily, and wet with perspiration after an
unbroken gallop of a dozen miles.

The Redskins gained upon him little by little.

At the turn of the trail he ventured to glance quickly round. In that
quick glance he saw that there were at least six of them, led by a
warrior wearing an ample war bonnet. They were therefore not members
of the buffalo-hunting party, but were on the war-path.

He saw that they were armed with guns and tomahawks, not bows and
arrows, and he took confidence from this circumstance, knowing that the
Indian is a poor marksman with firearms when mounted, and that none
could do him harm with the tomahawk unless within arm's reach of him.

Had his saddle been secure, he would have had little anxiety, but it
was slipping farther and farther back. He wondered if he might get
free from it altogether, and, dropping it to the ground, continue his
ride bare-backed.

Then he remembered that the two mail bags were buckled to the saddle,
and that it was his duty to safeguard them with his life.

He tried to ease the thing forward, and at the same time to raise it
and save it from shifting perilously to the pony's right side. He
believed he could manage it with an adroit upward movement of his right
foot, and he made the hazardous attempt, but, unfortunately, in bending
his ankle, he pushed his foot just a thought too far, and his boot went
clean through the steel loop of the stirrup, high heel and spur
included.

This would have been an awkward predicament in any circumstance, even
if the saddle band remained unbroken, and the saddle itself firmly in
position. It would have been almost impossible for him without help to
get the projecting spur and the heel of the boot back again through the
stirrup. But now, when the Indians were in close pursuit, only a few
lengths behind him, yelling their exultant cries, holding their weapons
ready, what was he to do?

Of one thing he was certain; the saddle was bound very soon to fall
from the pony's back, and he must as surely go with it, possibly to be
trampled to death under the hoofs of the Indians' horses.

He prepared himself for the inevita