As he did so, a faint noise caught his ear, and looking somewhat to the left, he was startled by seeing the dreaded animal, with its rings and streaks, cantering awkwardly over the ground, while Fred Hammond was caressing and playing with it. “B’ars and bufflers! what does that mean?” muttered the trapper, who could scarcely believe the evidence of his own eyes. But such was the case; the dreaded creature, the horrid beast that was impervious to powder and ball, that crushed in the skull of a man at one blow, and was literally the terror of the country, was frolicking with their young friend! “Come, old fellow, it is time you went home,” suddenly exclaimed the latter, as he ceased playing, and pointed down-stream. The unknown obediently turned, and uttering its faint bark, trotted away, and speedily disappeared. Black Tom concluded to say nothing of what he had witnessed to any one. He returned to his waiting friends and informed them that the way was clear. A few minutes later, and the three emerged from the cave, and, in the course of half an hour, safely reached “headquarters,” with their newly acquired wealth intact. CHAPTER XIII. BETWEEN TWO CLOUDS. “Now,” said Fred Hammond, after they had safely reëntered their own cavern home, “you have made your fortune, and I suppose are ready to start homeward to-morrow.” A general assent followed, and Black Tom added that, on account of the Blackfeet, it was to their interest to get away without a moment’s unnecessary delay. “I will be here early in the forenoon with my lady, ready to accompany you. You will wait for me?” “Yas; of course.” And the next moment Hammond had disappeared in the darkness. It was only fairly daylight when our hero climbed a small tree, near the base of a spur of the Black Hills, that commanded a view of the Meagan village. Carefully concealing himself from view, he made a waving motion of a branch in his hand, repeated it several times, intently watching the result, and then descended to the ground and impatiently awaited the coming of Lamora. Only a few minutes had elapsed, when a light step was heard, and the beautiful girl stepped timidly to view before him. The delighted lover rushed toward her and clasped her in his arms. “My own loved one!” he exclaimed, as he kissed the white forehead and pink cheeks, “are you ready to go with me?” “Yes,” was the faint, but immediate reply. “We are all prepared, and only await your coming.” After some affectionate love-passages, they began to discuss their course of action in a sensible, practical manner. Love had triumphed; Lamora had resolved to leave her Indian associations forever, and make her home with Hammond as his wife. That which would have been inexpressibly sad at any other time, now caused her scarcely a regret; nay, she was anxious and almost impatient to leave Kipwan, her adopted father, and the savages who had treated her with such kind tenderness ever since her childhood.