Her fingers were laid upon my arm with an imperative gesture, as she whispered in a tone where scorn and affection were curiously blended: "Let the white chief follow Clo-ke-ta. But his feet must be as light as the first leaf the autumn wind strews upon the plain." As her last word fell upon my ear, she glided away from me. Nor was it without some difficulty I kept my sight upon her undulating form, as my steps sped noiselessly after. We must have covered some eight hundred yards, or possibly less, when she pointed a little to my right, in advance of the spot we had reached. There I saw the struggling light of a small camp-fire, carefully smothered down with the torn-up roots of sage-brush, as I concluded, and could just make out the forms of the slumbering red-skins around it. Still further on the right I caught the faint glow of another. To the left, I could just make out two more; the farthest of these was so distant, that it was no larger, although less defined, than the flash of the fire-flies I had been accustomed to watch round my home in Galena, even earlier than the period at which I commenced this history of my adventures. As I turned towards her again, she said in a lower voice even than she had previously adopted: "My brother has sharp eyes." "He has." "Does he now believe what Clo-ke-ta has told him?" [Illustration: "'Does my brother now believe what Clo-ke-ta has told him?'"--_Page 222_.] "Yes." "And he will listen to her counsel?" "He cannot." "Why?" "He is a white brave." "Clo-ke-ta knows it." "The red man might run away, by himself. Who would call him a coward?" "His tribe would--" She commenced thus, indignantly. Then she saw the error she was committing, and broke short off, as I continued: "Without those who are with him can fly too, the white brave must remain." A single sharp wail of grief rose from her lips. As it did so, I threw myself upon the ground and speedily commenced crawling back as rapidly as I could, to the camp. Such a cry was enough to arouse every sleeping Bannock who might be within earshot of her, and quicken them to my presence. One glance I cast upon her, before the darkness blotted her out from my sight. She was standing erect and motionless, and it appeared to me that she made a gesture with one of her arms as if to quicken my movements. There was no need for her to do so. The necessity for my reaching my friends was too obvious. Unless I was detected, she would be safe. Already I had covered half the distance between the place, where I had paused with her, and our camp, when I rested for a moment. It was an almost compulsory pause. The speed with which my retreat had been commenced, and the position in which it had been made, had for the moment taken away my breath. There was now also, in the darkness, no absolute necessity for my continuing my creeping posture. I had, therefore, half risen to my feet, when I caught the rapid sound of Indian footsteps. A red-skin was behind me.