She turned to me after a time and smiled wanly.  “I am hungry,” she said.

“We shall make a fire,” I answered.  “But first I must wait until my coat dries.  The lining is wet, and we have no tinder.  The bark is wet on the little trees; each spear of grass is wet.”

Then I bethought me of an old expedient my father had once shown me.  At the bandolier across my shoulder swung my bullet pouch and powder flask, in the former also some bits of tow along with the cleaning worm.  I made a loose wad of the tow kept thus dry in the shelter of the pouch, and pushed this down the rifle barrel, after I had with some difficulty discharged the load already there.  Then I rubbed a little more powder into another loose wad of tow, and fired the rifle into this.  As luck would have it, some sparks still smoldered in the tow, and thus I was able once more to nurse up a tiny flame.  I never knew before how comforting a fire might be.  So now again we ate, and once more, as the hours advanced, we felt strength coming to us.  Yet, in spite of the food, I was obliged to admit a strange aching in my head, and a hot fever burning in my bones.

“See the poor horse,” she said, and pointed to our single steed, humped up in the wind, one hip high, his head low, all dejection.

“He must eat,” said I, and so started to loosen his hobble.  Thus engaged I thought to push on toward the top of the next ridge to see what might be beyond.  What I saw was the worst thing that could have met my eyes.  I sank down almost in despair.

There, on a flat valley nearly a mile away in its slow descent, stood the peaked tops of more than a score of Indian tepees.  Horses were scattered all about.  From the tops of the lodges little dribbles of smoke were coming.  The wet of the morning kept the occupants within, but here and there a robed figure stalked among the horses.

I gazed through the fringe of grasses at the top of the ridge, feeling that now indeed our cup of danger well-nigh was full.  For some moments I lay examining the camp, seeking to divine the intent of these people, whom I supposed to be Sioux.  The size of the encampment disposed me to think that it was a hunting party and not an expedition out for war.  I saw meat scaffolds, as I supposed, and strips of meat hanging over ropes strung here and there; although of this I could not be sure.

I turned as I heard a whisper at my shoulder.  “What is it?” she asked me; and then the next moment, gazing as I did over the ridge, she saw.  I felt her cower close to me in her instant terror.  “My God!” she murmured, “what shall we do?  They will find us; they will kill us!”

“Wait, now,” said I.  “They have not yet seen us.  They may go away in quite the other direction.  Do not be alarmed.”

We lay there looking at this unwelcome sight for some moments, but at last I saw something which pleased me better.

The men among the horses stopped, looked, and began to hurry about, began to lead up their horses, to gesticulate.  Then, far off upon the other side, I saw a blanket waving.