“That Indian cannot hurt me, and I don’t suppose that any of the others have come back.  It won’t take me long to get what I want; and I will do it, too.”

He was but a short distance from the place, and, having decided upon the proper course, he moved rapidly back upon the path he had just trod, and in a few minutes was beside the rock, which was becoming familiar in a certain sense.  Mindful of the danger to which one was always exposed in that section, Fred peered around the rock with the same silence and caution as before.  The result was a disappointment.  The Kiowa had disappeared.

“Now it can’t be that he was only pretending he was asleep all the time,” thought the puzzled lad.  “And yet, if he wasn’t, how was it he managed to get away?”

A few minutes’ reflection convinced Fred that it was impossible that there should have been any such thing as he had imagined at first.  The more reasonable theory was that some of the Kiowas had returned and taken the body of their comrade away, fearful, perhaps, that some of the Apaches might put in an appearance again and rob him of his scalp.  However, whatever the explanation was, Fred saw that his expedition was a failure.  There was nothing to be gained by remaining where he was, while there was unmistakable risk of being detected by some of the copper-colored prowlers.

He noticed that the camp-fire bore very much the same appearance as when he last saw it, and the probabilities were that the Kiowas were some distance away at that very time; but the young fugitive had already run enough risk, without incurring any more, and he resolved to spend an hour or two in getting out of the neighborhood altogether.

There was little choice of direction, but it was natural that he should prefer the back-trail, and, clambering down into the ravine again, he turned his face to the southward, directly through the ravine that he had traversed during the day upon the back of Waukko’s mustang.

“I can tell when I reach the place where Lone Wolf and his men left us,” he said to himself.  “That will take me a good while, but when I do find it, the trail will be so much larger and plainer that there will be no trouble about following it, but it will take me several days to do it, and it is going to be hard work.  I need all the time possible, so I guess it will be best to keep going all night.”

There was not so much amusement in this as he fancied, but he kept it up bravely for some two or three hours, during which he made good headway.  The walking was comparatively easy in the ravine, which was one of those openings encountered at intervals among the mountains in the West, and which are known under the name of passes.  In many places it would be utterly out of the question for parties to force their way through the chains but for these avenues, which nature has kindly furnished.

The moonlight was just sufficient to make the boy feel uneasy.  He could discern objects, although indistinctly, nearly a hundred yards away, and where the character of the gorge was continually shifting to a certain extent there was abundant play for the imagination.