Dick watched closely in the hope that he might be able to catch the drift of what was passing between the two. That he and Roger were the objects under consideration he had not the slightest doubt, for several times one or the other pointed toward the spot where they stood. "Can you make it out at all, Dick?" Roger asked. "I am sorry to say it's more than I've been able to understand, Roger; but I think he's telling the chief again how valuable we are as prizes. And to think we have no way of proving to him that we are only ordinary boys, without rich fathers to pay a big ransom. It is just the sort of game we might have expected Andrew Waller to play." The man who had been sent out of the camp of the explorers now approached them again. He was rubbing his hands as though in great glee. "Now, I shall not only have my pick of two good guns, but plenty of ammunition for them, in spite of Captain Lewis. I am going to say good-by to you here, for I have to meet M'sieu Lascelles at an appointed rendezvous. Oh! he will be very much pleased when he learns how the Dacotahs prize the boys he hates so bitterly, and mean to carry them off to their villages, far to the north, there to keep them until the big ransom arrives. It tickles me to know how soon my debt to you has been so nicely cancelled." Roger gritted his teeth, but he managed to keep from saying anything. "Just as you told us when you were leaving camp, we may meet again, Andrew Waller," Dick said, with an unmistakable meaning in his voice. "Oh! that is possible," the other jauntily added, purposely misunderstanding what the boy meant; "for it may be M'sieu Lascelles, he would wish to see for himself that you are comfortable, so for that reason we might journey into the Dacotah country ourselves." With that thrust he waved his hand to them, and, turning, walked away as he had come. None of the Indians paid the least heed to his movements; but Roger almost choked in his indignation. "Just to think, Dick," he muttered in a quivering voice, "the beast is carrying my dear old gun which he took from our red guide, on his shoulder. How much I will miss it, because, ever since I've been able to look along the sights of a rifle, that gun has been my companion day and night." "We shall hope that in some way or other you will see it again," Dick told him. "Even if not, there are others just as sure shooters at the camp. The one he used to own, and which they refused to let him carry off, is even a better-made weapon than yours." "Yes, but that gun has associations away above its value in money," said Roger, heaving a sigh; "and at the best the chances of my ever handling it again are three against one." "Well, we must try to think of other things now," Dick told him.