Tyope, abandoning his position at the foot of the tree, glided to the nearest shrub.  Thence he struck northward in the direction of the Rito.  He walked erect, but scrupulously avoided everything that might create noise.  When near the fireplace he stood still and listened.  A wolf yelped to the right of where the Dinne of whom Tyope was most afraid seemed to be listening, about two hundred steps from him, on the swelling of the mesa.  He manifestly expected the Queres to return the same way he came.  It was not a sign of much wisdom, but the boy was young and inexperienced in the stratagems of Indian warfare.  Tyope felt relieved.

Suddenly loud barking sounded directly in front of him, and at no great distance.  Tyope dropped on the ground and began to glide like a snake toward the place whence this last signal came.  He crouched behind a flat rock and raised his eyes.  It was in vain; nothing could be seen in the obscurity.  He felt puzzled.  Was this last signal the voice of another enemy who had hitherto remained silent, or was it Nacaytzusle who had changed his position?  At all events it was safer to rise and go directly toward the spot, rather than approach it in a creeping posture.  He walked deliberately onward, at the same time calling out in a low tone,—­

“Nacaytzusle!”

Nothing moved.

He advanced a few steps and repeated,—­

“Nacaytzusle!  Hast thou seen anything?”

“No,” said a hollow voice near by, and a human form arose as if from beneath the surface.  The man stepped up to Tyope; and to the latter’s unpeakable relief, he looked stouter and shorter than Nacaytzusle.  The Indian was unknown to him, and Tyope said eagerly,—­

“The badger must be hiding near where the fire is.  We should cut off his trail to the north.  Nacaytzusle went too far east; there”—­he pointed toward the northeast—­“is where he ought to stand.”

Tyope spoke the Navajo language fluently.

“Thou art right,” said the other; “go thither, and we will be closer together.”

Tyope felt loath to follow this advice, for it would have brought him uncomfortably near his most dangerous foe; yet, under the circumstances and to avoid all suspicion he accepted the suggestion, and was about to turn in the direction indicated when the signals sounded again and simultaneously from every quarter.  The strange Indian held him back, asking,—­

“How is this?  We are five, and four have shouted now.  Who art thou, and where dost thou come from?”

“I came from above,” Tyope replied, with affected composure.

They stood so close together that the Navajo could notice some details of Tyope’s accoutrements.  Grasping the cap of buffalo hide which dangled from the belt of the Queres, he inquired,—­

“What dost thou carry here?”