ond to lose, and the fight unequal, Hal darted,
instead, back to his tent pole.

There hung a mirror that he had used in shaving.

It took but an instant to get this. Then Hal raced for a tree thirty
feet away.

Dropping the small mirror into a pocket, Overton started to climb the
tree.

"Come down out of that tree, or we'll bring you down!" roared an ugly
voice.

"You'll have to drop me, then, if you want me," taunted Hal coolly.

He was a dozen feet up the trunk by the time that the man who now held
that rifle gained the base of the tree.

"Coming down, you----?" called the ruffian with an oath.

"No," responded Hal. "Coming up?"

"Come down, I tell you!"

"Some mistake," sneered Hal, still climbing. "I'm headed for the roof."

Below him he heard a threatening click as the bolt of the rifle was
thrown back.

"Hey! Don't shoot the kid--yet," ordered another voice. "He'll come down
when he sees what we can do to him. He hasn't any show."

So the fellow under the tree went back to join his six companions.

Dietz and Johnson were still holding up their hands. This fact was no
reflection on their courage. They were trained fighting men, and had
sense enough to realize when the enemy had "the drop" on them.

"You two soldiers," ordered the leader of the ruffians, "lie down on
your faces and hold your hands behind your backs for tying."

Neither soldier, however, stirred as yet.

"You heard that, Sergeant?" called Dietz dryly.

"Yes," admitted Hal.

"What shall we do?"

"You fellows get down on your faces--flop!" broke in the leader of the
ruffians. "That's what you'll do!"

"Will you be kind enough to shut up?" retorted Private Dietz coolly.
"We're taking our orders from the sergeant."

"Let him come down here and give the orders, then," jeered the leader of
the invaders.

"You'd better give in, Dietz and Johnson," order Sergeant Hal. "You
can't do anything and I don't want to see you killed."

"That's your order, then, is it, sergeant?" inquired Private Johnson.

"Yes; it can't be helped."

Dietz and Johnson, therefore, lay down as directed. Some of the
scoundrels who were not armed busied themselves with tying the soldiers,
and this work the miscreants did with a thoroughness that spoke
eloquently of practice.

But the diversion gave Hal a chance to do something that had popped into
his head at the instant when he had stepped back for the mirror.

The sun was still sufficiently high fo