came to a halt. Rube heard the movements of horses,
and presently he was lifted and flung over the back of one of them. He
managed to get comfortably astride, in spite of his imprisoned hands.
Fortunately for himself, he was a good rider and could keep his seat on
the pony's bare back without great difficulty.

All the time he was thinking less of his own position as a captive than
of Kiddie. He knew very surely that Kiddie would be anxious about him.
What would he do? Would he just wait in camp in fretful annoyance?

Rube knew Kiddie pretty well by now; knew that so soon as a reasonable
time had gone by he would judge that an accident of some kind had
caused the delay, and would set out in search.

"Pity I didn't blaze the trail, somehow," Rube reflected. "Dessay
he'll squander heaps of valuable time lookin' fer my dead body along
the foot of the cliffs away down in the canyon. Though I reckon he'd
foller on my tracks as far's he could. If Kiddie noticed that pair of
eagles takin' flight, he'll know it was my bein' near their nest that
scared 'em. He'll make for the nest, sure."

Rube was applying Kiddie's method of imagining himself in the other
person's place, and, following up this process, he decided that it
would not be very long before Kiddie would get on to the track of these
Indians.

CHAPTER XVI

THE SIGN OF THE BROKEN FEATHER

When at length the ponies were brought to a halt, Rube was dragged to
the ground and left there, lying on his back, with his cramped arms
beneath him. He heard the muffled sounds of barking dogs and
chattering squaws, and he judged that he had been brought into the
Indians' encampment.

Presently he was turned over and his arms were set free, the tight
bandage was taken from his eyes.

He sat up and gazed about him wonderingly, with dim sight and aching
forehead.

For the first time in his life he was in an Indian village, surrounded
by wigwams, all of them similar to Kiddie's teepee, only that his was
cleaner and better made, and decorated with more care.

The village was pitched in the midst of a green valley, through which
ran a narrow creek, bordered with willows. Horses and cattle grazed on
the neighbouring slopes, and an enclosed cornfield and well-beaten
trails showed that the Indians lived here permanently.

Near to where he sat were two lodges larger than the rest. They were
decorated with many painted devices and trophies of the chase, and in