In the middle of the afternoon Ambrose, making his endless tramp back and forth across the little shack, paused to take an observation from the window, and saw three horsemen come tearing down the trail into camp.

They flung themselves off their horses with excited gestures, and the camp was instantly thrown into confusion.  The natives darted among the teepees like ants when their hill is broken into.

Watusk appeared, buckling on his belts.  The women that were left in camp started to scuttle toward the river, dragging their children after them.

Ambrose’s heart bounded at the prospect of a diversion.  Whatever happened, his lot could be no worse.  At the first alarm three of his jailers had run down to the teepees.  They came back in a hurry.

The door of the shack was thrown open, and the whole six rushed in and seized him.  Ambrose, seeking to delay them, struggled hard.  They finally got his hands and feet tied, cursing him heartily in their own tongue.  They hustled him down to the riverside.

All the people left on this side were already gathered there.  They continually looked over their shoulders with faces ashen with terror.  The men who had horses drove them into the river and swam across with a hand upon the saddle.

The women and children were ferried in the dugout.  So great was their haste they came empty-handed.  The teepees were left as they stood with fires burning and flaps up.

Watusk passed near Ambrose, his yellow face livid with agitation.

“What’s the matter?” cried the white man.

The chief was afflicted with a sudden deafness.  Ambrose was cast in a dugout.  The indefatigable Job hopped in after and made himself small at his master’s feet.

The mad excitement of the whole crowd inspired Ambrose with a strong desire to laugh.  The water flew in cascades from the frantic paddles of the boat-men.

Arriving on the other side, Ambrose was secured on a horse, as on his first journey, and instantly despatched inland with his usual guard.  As he was carried away they were dragging up the dugouts and concealing them under the willows.  Watusk was sending men to watch from the cemetery on top of the bold hill.

Ambrose’s guards led his horse at a smart lope around a spur of the hill and along beside a wasted stream almost lost in its stony bed.  A dense forest bordered either bank.  The trail was broken and spread by the recent passage of a large number of travelers; these would be the main body of the Kakisas a week before.  Ambrose guessed that they were following the bed of a coulee.

Through the tree-tops on either hand he had occasional glimpses of steep, high banks.

After a dozen miles or so of this they suddenly debouched into a verdant little valley without a tree.  The stream meandered through it with endless twists.

Except for two narrow breaks where it entered and issued forth, the hills pressed all around, steep, grassy hills, fantastically knobbed and hollowed.