ht shape for 'em. There are only three guns
among 'em, though them kind of Injins are as good with the bow as the
rifle, and they made up their minds that if we let them alone, they
wouldn't bother us."

"You said awhile ago that we should have trouble from them."

"And so we shall; when they reasoned like I was sayin', they didn't
know anything about the little accident that happened to their chief;
it's that which will make things lively."

"We can't see the point where that accident took place," said Captain
Dawson.

"No; the trail curves too much, but we can foller it most of the way;
they're likely to go right on without 'specting anything, but when
they find the horse, it'll set 'em to looking round. After that, the
band will begin to play."

While the party were watching the five Indians, the leader was seen
to pass from view around the curve in the trail, followed by the next,
until finally the fifth disappeared. All this time, not one of the
warriors looked behind him. It was a singular line of action, and
because of its singularity roused the suspicion of the spectators.

While three of the miners resumed their seats on the boulders and
ground, Vose Adams kept his feet. Doubling each palm, so as to make a
funnel of it, he held one to either eye and continued scrutinizing the
point where he had last seen the hostiles. He suspected it was not the
last of them. Instead of imitating him, his friends studied his
wrinkled countenance.

The air in that elevated region was wonderfully clear, but it is
hardly possible to believe the declaration which the guide made some
minutes later. He insisted that, despite the great distance, one of
the Indians, after passing from view, returned over his own trail and
peeped around the bend in the rocks, and that the guide saw his black
hair and gleaming snake-like eyes. The fact that Vose waited until the
savage had withdrawn from sight, before making the astonishing
declaration, threw some discredit on it, for it would have required a
good telescope to do what he claimed to have done with the unassisted
eye alone.

"You see I was looking for something of the kind," he explained, "or
mebbe I wouldn't have obsarved him."

"Could you tell the color of his eyes?" asked the doubting Ruggles.

"They were as black as coal."

"It is safe to say that," remarked the parson, "inasmuch as I never
met an Indian who had eyes of any other color."

"There are such," said Vose, "a