It was quite dark when Pitamakan and I drove the horses out from the barricade for their night-grazing. We flicked them into a lope up the rise to the plain, but when we were nearly to the top they suddenly shied at something ahead and dashed sharply off to the left. I was riding Is-spai-u as usual, and he was so frightened that it was all I could do to keep him from running ahead of the loose stock. Pitamakan and I went some distance before we managed to head the horses up the slope; and as soon as we were well out on the plain I asked Pitamakan what he thought had frightened our animals. "I will tell you my real belief," he answered. "It was the enemy, maybe a number of them, lying there to see in what direction we would drive the horses, so that they could trail on and take them from us." "It may have been a bear." "If a bear had been there, we should have seen him; there is starlight enough for that. The low, sweet sage growth along the slope could not have hidden a bear from us, but it is high enough to conceal men lying flat in it. Almost-brother, I believe with old Lame Wolf that trouble is about to break upon us!" "Well, they shall not get these horses," I declared. When, at last, we hobbled the loose animals and picketed Is-spai-u and Pitamakan's runner we felt sure that no enemy could find us. But there was to be no sleep for us that night; we settled down to listen for the far-off boom of the cannon, which would tell us that the cut-throats had attacked our camp. About midnight we nearly started for the west and southwest and the Pikuni, but we decided to wait a little longer and listen for the boom of the cannon. We watched the Seven Persons swinging round in the northern sky, and at last they warned us that day was not far off. The attack upon camp had not opened; so we decided to urge my uncle to allow us to go at once in search of the Pikuni. We unhobbled the loose stock and drove them in with a rush. There was only a faint lightening of the eastern horizon when we arrived at the barricade, and Abbott, standing on watch at the passageway, let down the bars for us. "You are in plenty early this mornin'," he said as we drove past him. "We have reason for it. We want to persuade my uncle to let us start right now after the Pikuni," I answered. "You said it! That is just what he should have you do!" he exclaimed. As we got down from our horses we saw dimly here and there the other watchers approaching to learn whether we had anything to tell of the night. Then in the direction of the grove we all heard the patter of feet striking harshly upon the stony ground. "It's the Twins!" Abbott exclaimed. "Behind them the cut-throats!" said Pitamakan, and at the same time our ears caught the faint thudding of many moccasined feet. Then the Twins loomed up hugely in the dusk. They dashed in through the passageway, and Josh gasped out, "They're right at our tails! Run that cannon out!"