s. The
quadruped thus affected was Hercules, his own mule, who, although
lying down, twice rose to his feet, shifted his position and lay down
again. Then he sniffed as if the air contained an odor that was
displeasing to him.

"I wouldn't think much of it, if it was one of the horses," reflected
his master, "but Hercules has brains; he knows more'n all the others
together, and yet it may be it ain't that after all."

One of the singular facts regarding cattle and other quadrupeds is
that they are sometimes troubled with disquieting dreams, the same as
ourselves. This trifling cause has resulted many a time in the
stampeding of a drove numbering tens of thousands.

"I've knowed Hercules to kick and snort in his sleep, and one time he
come mighty near breakin' a leg of mine; howsumever, I don't think
that's the trouble with him to-night. I 'spect it's Injins this
time!"

When Captain Dawson lay down to sleep and Vose Adams assumed his place
as sentinel, the moon was near the zenith, but the contour of the
canyon shut out its beams. While Vose was striving to pierce the gloom,
over and about the four animals, he noted a flickering tremor against
the vast wall which formed the other side of the canyon. A faint,
fleecy veil of moonlight having been lifted over the mountain crests,
was now flung downward and caught against and suspended upon the
projecting rocks and crags. It was but a frosty shimmer, but the veil
dangled lower and lower, pendant here and there until the fringe
rested on the bottom of the gorge.

The sleeping miners and horses were wrapped in deep shadow, but the
tremulous, almost invisible veil still fluttered on the further side
of the canyon. By and by, the shifting moon would whisk it up again
and all would be gloom as before.

The sentinel lay flat on his face and peered over the prone animals
toward the faint light across the canyon, and, looking thus, he saw the
outlines of a man moving among the horses and mule. A shadow could not
have been more noiseless. Not the faintest rustle betrayed his
footsteps.

"Just what I expected," thought Vose; "I'll wager Hercules against a
dozen of the best horses in Sacramento that that shadder is one of
them five Injins we seen stealin' along the ledge this mornin'. All
the same, I can't imagine what the mischief he is driving at."

The guide's first impulse was to bring his rifle to his shoulder and
let fly. The intruder was so near that it was impossibl