Just then the pony’s head came up with a jerk, and his ears were thrown back as if he were listening to some sound behind him. He did not turn about as most horses would have done, nor did he move one of his feet an inch—not even when the clatter of hoofs on the hard path began to ring out clearly and distinctly, as it did a moment later. Somebody was coming through the sage-brush toward the ravine—that was evident. Beyond a doubt it was the lieutenant; and here was Oscar, fairly cornered. A person thinks rapidly when placed in a situation like this, and it did not take the boy an instant to make up his mind that everything depended on his pony. The rock behind which he had hidden the bundle stood on the hillside, fully twenty feet from the path, and the intervening space was thickly covered with trees and bushes. If the pony could be kept from revealing his presence, it was possible that the approaching horseman might pass on into the ravine, without suspecting that there was anyone near him. “It’s rather a slender chance,” Oscar thought, as he swung himself from the saddle and seized his pony by the bit; “but it is the only one I have. Now, old fellow,” he added in a whisper, “just imagine that I am an Indian hiding here to escape from a white man who wants to shoot me!” If the pony had been able to understand every word his master said to him, he could not have behaved with more circumspection. He stood perfectly still, and there was nothing but the motion of his ears to indicate that he heard anything. Oscar kept a close watch of the path through a convenient opening in the bushes, and presently the horseman passed across the range of his vision. CHAPTER XIV. LEFT IN THE SAGE-BRUSH. The opening in the bushes was so small that Oscar was able to obtain but a momentary glimpse of the passing horseman, but that momentary glimpse was enough to satisfy him on two points. It was not the lieutenant, after all, but Lish, the Wolfer, and he had not been to the village for the purpose of getting drunk, as the colonel had intimated, but to lay in some necessary supplies in the way of provisions. The well-filled bags that were slung across his pony’s neck, and the side of bacon which hung from the muzzle of the long rifle he carried over his shoulder testified to this fact. Oscar drew a long breath of relief when he saw the man ride down the path, and told himself that one thing was certain: If Tom was determined to go with the wolfer he would have something to eat during the journey to his hunting-grounds, and if he went hungry after that, it would be because his partner was too lazy to keep the larder supplied with meat.