the shod horses and probably blunder into a trap just as he and Sandy had done. The commotion outside increased in volume and other wailing voices joined the first.
'Black Bear's band has got back an' some more squaws have learned they are widders,' Sudden surmised.
There was a slight movement in the gloom on the far side of the tepee ; the noise had awakened the third prisoner.
'Sandy,' the girl whispered. 'Did I hear Mister Green's voice?'
'Shore, I'm here, Miss Carol,' Sudden replied.
'Thank heaven,' she said. 'I feared you were--killed.' He Trailed grimly into the darkness ; she did not realize that death might yet be a boon to crave for. Still speaking in a low voice, she went on, 'Mister Green, the Indian who brought me here is the other--the one who got away.'
It gave Sudden no pleasure to find that his conjecture had proved correct. Affecting a jocularity he did not feel, he said: 'Persevering beggar ; we'll have to discourage him some.'
'I'm--scared,' she confessed.
'Don't yu be,' he urged, and then lied nobly, 'the boys'll be along any time now an' snake us outa this mess.'
His confident tone was comforting and she uttered a sigh of relief ; somehow she felt that with these two men beside her, tied though they were, the situation was not quite hopeless.
The flap of the tent was flung aside and a savage, carrying a lighted pine-knot, stalked in. Of medium height, his headdress of eagle-plumes and erect bearing made him appear taller. He was young, less than thirty, Sudden estimated, and moved with the agile sinuosity of a snake. On his bare breast the mask of a fox was crudely pictured in red, and the streaks of paint on his face intensified its sinister expression of cruelty. He shot one triumphant glance at the girl, strode across to Sudden and stooped, thrusting the torch almost into the cowboy's face. For an instant he gazed and then a flash of ferocious joy illumined the dark eyes.
'Damnation, he remembers me,' the captive reflected. 'Trust an Injun for that.'
Spitting out a few rapid sentences in his own tongue, the Indian, after testing the bonds of all three, glided away.
'What did he say?' Sandy thoughtlessly inquired.
Sudden, though he could not have given a literal translation gathered sufficient to know that he had been promised a slow and very agonizing end. Not wishing to further alarm the girl, his reply was evasive:
'He's goin' to have a pow-wow with me in the mornin'.' Sandy's tone was incredulous. 'A pow' he began, and stopped. 'Shore, he'll want to talk things over,' he went on. 'Mebbe he'll dicker with us for beeves.'
Long into the night the shrieks of the women mourning their dead endured. Sudden could vision them, kneeling on the bare earth, their bodies streaming with blood from the gashes they inflicted upon themselves. The spectacle would rouse resentment against the hated paleface prisoners to the highest pitch, and unless a miracle happened . . . In a gust of revolt, he strained at his bonds, but the man who had tied them knew his business. He tried to sleep, well aware that he would need all his nerve for the coming ordeal.
Daylight brought them visitors, an armed brave and a squaw bearing platters of food, pieces of cooked flesh and cakes of meal, with which they had to deal as best they could with bound hands. One unacquainted with Indians might have argued from this that they were not yet to die, but Sudden knew it was but a refinement of cruelty ; a man weak from want of food would succumb to torture sooner.
When they had eaten, the redskin removed the bonds from Sudden's ankles and pointed to the entrance of the tent. The cowboy saw the alarm in the girl's eyes and forced a grin on his set lips.
'Goin' to have a word with Foxy,' he said. 'Back soon.'
'What does it really mean?' Carol's white lips whispered, as the pair went out.
Sandy was cursing softly but vividly. 'It means--hell,' he groaned.
They heard a fierce yell of execration as the captive appeared, and in an agony of fear, dragged themselves to the opening of the tepee. The sight they saw did not reassure them.
The camp was of fair size, consisting of more than a score of lodges, set in a rude circle and hedged in by trees and brush. Round the open space in the centre the whole tribe was gathered, men, women, and children, shrieking and yelling in savage exultation. The hubbub increased as , the white man was conducted to a large tree on the edge of the clearing. Two more warriors now joined the first. Releasing his hands, they gripped a wrist apiece, forced his arms back and again secured them behind the tree-trunk. The position was intensely painful and rendered the sufferer as helpless as a tied steer.
No sooner was this done than the onlookers surged forward, broke into an eerie chant, and began to circle the tree in a wild dance. The oblique rays of the mounting sun, flickering through the foliage, shadowed the fantastic capers on the ground. Though they shook their weapons in his face, no one of the dancers attempted to touch the prisoner. Interminably, as it seemed to the object of it, the monotonous dirge went on. All the tribe were not taking part ; on the far side of the clearing stood a group of Indians whose plumed heads showed that they were chiefs ; among them was Black Bear.
Wooden-faced, the bound man stared stolidly at the dancing devils who mocked as they passed him. His head still throbbed from the rough treatment of yesterday and his arm-muscles ached under the unnatural strain to which they were being subjected, but he knew he must show no sign of weakness ; that was what these fiends were hoping for. To avoid thinking of what was to come he sent his mind back into the past, recalling the dark hours in Fourways, where he had also awaited death ; it was a grim thought that the outlaw's rescue might yet prove something to be regretted. It would be Sandy's turn next, and then the girl ; the eyes of Red Fox had plainly told her fate.
A raucous command rang out and the droning ring broke and swept back, forming in a half-circle on the far side of the clearing. From among the chiefs Red Fox strode, his feathers fluttering in the faint breeze, to pause a few paces from the prisoner. His dark face was alight with savage triumph.
'For the slaying of Running Deer, my brother, you shall die many times. On your knees you shall beg for death and it shall not come.'
Sudden's expression was contemptuous. 'Red Fox has a big mouth,' he said. 'He might frighten a papoose.'
He knew that the shaft had gone home, though only a tremor of rage betrayed the fact ; the redskin was crafty.
'Red Fox has sharp teeth but will not bite too soon,' he countered. 'yet if the white dog desires a speedy death, he shall have his chance.'
He stepped back, drew a short, heavy-hafted knife from his belt, and glanced pridefully round at his audience. Then his right arm swung up, down, and like a streak of silver the blade flashed through the sunlight and embedded itself in the tree-trunk. Sudden felt a trickle of warm blood and realized that the keen edge. missing his head by a hair's-breadth. had nicked his ear. The thrower, bent slightly forward, watched the result of his effort with evil enjoyment.
11 CI
'Move, and earn the death you will presently pray for,' he called out.
A medley of mocking yells came from the spectators and a score of voices repeated the taunt; both they and the cunning devil who had uttered it knew that the invitation would not be accepted. However desperate his situation, a sane, healthy man will hold on to life as long as possible, and though Sudden could see no chance of escape, he cherished a hope that he might somehow get free and go down fighting. So he schooled his aching muscles and became as motionless as the tree against which he stood.
With steady, unwinking eyes, he saw the fling of the brown arm again, the gleam of the twinkling steel, and felt the wind of the blade on his cheek. The second knife missed him by less than an inch. Amid the shouts of admiration for the prowess of their chief, were jeers for the man who had declined to die. Sudden was concerned with someone else ; from behind had come a hoarse whisper :
'yore han's is free. When that varmint comes to git his stickers, grab one an' let him have it. Then jump for the tepee, git yore guns, and gimme a chance to start the gal an' yore friend off. There'll be a hoss waitin' for yu.'
Like a dazed man, the cowboy listened. The voice was one he had heard before but in the stress of the moment he could not place it. He could feel that his wrists had been loosed and lowered his arms slightly to relieve
