The redskin was unharmed, but bound firmly, then gagged, and left in the place lately occupied by the trapper. Buffalo Bill asked the Indian if his companions would return at night, and received an affirmative nod, so he and Nomad rode away to the hills again. That night the scout himself remained on guard and sent Nomad, Hickok, and Skibo to rest. Cody was somewhat anxious regarding Little Cayuse, and he felt confident that Bloody Ike was still in that region and would attempt some sort of an attack on the party. The shelter of brush and blankets was in a thicket of stunted willow, which grew on a sort of stair of the mountain. Ten rods away was an entrance to the abandoned mine. Along one side and four or five rods away was a fall of sixty or seventy feet. On the other side and not more than three rods from camp was another “rise” of thirty to fifty feet. The scout had cautioned his pards to stick close to the thicket, in which were great blocks of rocks in uneven, toppling piles. Here they were comparatively safe from the bullets of a lurking enemy on the heights above. The scout believed that Bloody Ike knew every turn of the old mine, and as a hiding place it could hardly have an equal. A man with guns and ammunition could defy an army. He could bob up in unexpected places and pick off a man and then disappear. As soon as it was dark the scout stole out of camp and climbed to a good position upon the rocks above. There he lighted his pipe and settled down to a solitary vigil. In the shadow of a clump of bushes he could not be seen, while he commanded a view of the moonlit rocks all about him, and from where he sat he could see both entrances to the old mine. The scout turned over in his mind the incidents of the last few days, and wondered at the rapidity of developments. He was opposing a well-organized gang, as every incident indicated. In the attempt to decoy him to his death the villains had made use of a small cannon as a signal. There were not only white rascals in the gang, but they had enlisted the services of various bands of Indians such as the one which had captured Nomad. The members of the gang, or at least some of them, placed no value on human existence. A man’s life would be taken with as little compunction as that caused by the killing of a snake or a rat. “What in the name of common sense is that?” The scout’s muttered exclamation had been called forth by something which came into view on the bare, flat top of the mountain beyond and above the upper entrance to the mine. It was a gray object, the very color of the rock along which it moved noiselessly, and could not have been distinguished had it not been outlined against the sky beyond. The thing was moving toward the edge of the descent very slowly, as though having no object in life whatever.