In an instant he realized his position.  He had been dropped intentionally upon an ant-heap, which had sunk with his weight, wedging him between the crusts.  At the mercy of those terrible desert ants!  A frantic effort to roll out proved futile, as did another and another.  His violent muscular contractions infuriated the ants, and in an instant he was writhing in pain so horrible and so unendurable that he nearly fainted.  But he was too strong to faint suddenly.  A bath of vitriol, a stripping of his skin and red embers of fire thrown upon raw flesh, could not have equaled this.  There was fury in the bites and poison in the fangs of these ants.  Was this an Indian’s brutal trick or was it the missionary’s revenge?  Shefford realized that it would kill him soon.  He sweat what seemed blood, although perhaps the blood came from the bites.  A strange, hollow, buzzing roar filled his ears, and it must have been the pouring of the angry ants from their mound.

Then followed a time that was hell—­worse than fire, for fire would have given merciful death—­agony under which his physical being began spasmodically to jerk and retch—­and his eyeballs turned and his breast caved in.

A cry rang through the roar in his ears.  “Bi Nai!  Bi Nai!”

His fading sight seemed to shade round the dark face of Nas Ta Bega.

Then powerful hands dragged him from the mound, through the grass and sage, rolled him over and over, and brushed his burning skin with strong, swift sweep.

IX.  IN THE DESERT CRUCIBLE

That hard experience was but the beginning of many cruel trials for John Shefford.

He never knew who his assailants were, nor their motive other than robbery; and they had gotten little, for they had not found the large sum of money sewed in the lining of his coat.  Joe Lake declared it was Shadd’s work, and the Mormon showed the stern nature that lay hidden under his mild manner.  Nas Ta Bega shook his head and would not tell what he thought.  But a somber fire burned in his eyes.

The three started with a heavily laden pack-train and went down the mountain slope into West Canyon.  The second day they were shot at from the rim of the walls.  Lake was wounded, hindering the swift flight necessary to escape deeper into the canyon.  Here they hid for days, while the Mormon recovered and the Indian took stealthy trips to try to locate the enemy.  Lack of water and grass for the burros drove them on.  They climbed out of a side canyon, losing several burros on a rough trail, and had proceeded to within half a day’s journey of Red Lake when they were attacked while making camp in a cedar grove.  Shefford sustained an exceedingly painful injury to his leg, but, fortunately, the bullet went through without breaking a bone.  With that burning pain there came to Shefford the meaning of fight, and his rifle grew hot in his hands.  Night alone saved the trio from certain fatality.  Under the cover of darkness the Indian helped Shefford to escape.  Joe Lake looked out for himself.  The pack-train was lost, and the mustangs, except Nack-yal.