no time to spare, I left the business to the dog, see?"

"An arrow!" exclaimed Rube, "a poisoned arrow! Well, 'twas sure a
Injun done it. Any one else 'ud have used a gun."

"Might have been a white man, for all that," resumed Kiddie. "An
arrow's a silent weapon, and if it's poisoned, as this one certainly
was, then a mere scratch would be fatal; whereas the victim might
recover from a bullet wound. Whoever it was, however, Sheila must sure
have left the mark of her fangs on him."

"How d'you know she didn't kill him?" Rube persisted. "How d'you know
he ain't lyin' there dead, right now?"

"Because," Kiddie rejoined, "on my return trip--knowing exactly where
the thing happened--I went into the forest and searched. I found spots
of blood. I found signs of the struggle; that was all. There wasn't
any dead body lyin' around."

"P'raps th' other Redskins carried his body away," conjectured Rube.

"But he was alone," pursued Kiddie. "I'm plumb sure there was nobody
with him."

"See the marks of his moccasins?"

"No. He wore nailed boots, which left scratches on the root of a
cotton wood tree."

"Boots, eh? A Injun would have wore moccasins that wouldn't leave no
scratch, even on the soft bark of a tree root. Y'see, a white man
might wear moccasins, same's I do; but I never knew a Redskin shove his
hoofs inter hob-nailed boots. Wait, Kiddie, wait! I've gotten a idea."

"Let's hear it, then, Rube. I'm glad to find that you're exercising
your powers of reasoning. What's your idea?"

"This," declared Rube, with a knowing headshake. "I was figurin' that
the low-down scoundrel as fired that poisoned arrow might be--well,
_might_ be Nick Undrell. I never told you before, Kiddie, but that day
when your outfit was attacked by the Injuns, I heard one of Nick's
chums say ter him--time you was ridin' alone in advance of the
wagons--that now was the chance if Nick had a mind ter put a bullet
inter you an' vamoose wi' the boodle."

"Yes," smiled Kiddie, "and your idea is that because one of his chums
said such a thing as that, Nick went miles and miles out of his way to
hide himself in Medicine Creek Forest and try to do the trick by
putting a poisoned arrow into me, eh? And what d'you reckon might have
been his motive?"

"Dunno," answered Rube. "Never thought of that."

"Because," pursued Kiddie, "if it was robbery, an experienced
frontiersman like Nick Undrell wouldn't calculate on finding much
bo