And while the boys talked on various subjects, as they sat around, Thad happened to be watching the face of the Fox when one of the scouts casually mentioned the name of Colonel Kracker. He actually saw the dark face grow stern, and that the Indian ground his teeth together, as if in anger. Seeing which Thad put things together, and came to a conclusion, whether right or wrong, of course he could not yet say. "He knows Kracker, for he started when Davy mentioned the name," Thad was saying to himself. "And the chances are that the prospector has done something to injure the Fox, or some member of his family. These Indians hate savagely; and perhaps this young fellow, hardly more than a boy, has taken to the warpath, bent on having a settlement with the big bully. Well, it isn't any of our business; but I know I'd hate to have the Fox camping on _my_ trail, with hatred burning in his heart." CHAPTER VIII. PLANNING WOE TO THE BIG HORNS. "If we get along in this way," Giraffe was saying, as he sat there watching the young Indian eat what had been set before him; "two at a pop, not that they're just as welcome as the showers in April, though, we'll have to hustle some lively so's to provide grub." "Keepin' open house, Giraffe!" sang out Davy Jones, looking up from his job of placing another new film in his snapshot camera. "Well, we've got our sign out to the Foxes; that's right," grinned the other, as he glanced proudly at the head that had been painted in really a clever fashion on the canvas of each tent. They sat up a while longer, and canvassed the situation; but the hour getting late, and several of the boys showing signs of being sleepy, it was finally decided that they had better turn in. So Bumpus had to pretend to blow "taps," with his fist for a bugle; and as usual he acquitted himself splendidly. The young Indian's eyes sparkled when he heard that imitation of the real thing; and Thad imagined the Fox must at some time or other have rubbed up against the regular cavalry of the United States Army, so that he understood what Bumpus was doing. Thad and Allan had arranged matters with the guide, so that there would be some one on guard at all hours of the night. With those three men hovering near, there could be no telling what might happen. While they were not outlaws, or anything of that sort; still, after learning how they had treated poor Aleck, just because he very rightly refused to give up the secret of the mine that was his mother's property, and on which Kracker did not have the slightest claim, Thad could give a pretty good guess as to the character of the men.