"I fear that they are looking for such a move, and will be across before we can gain sufficient start." "But they may do so now." "Am I not watching them?" asked the husband, beginning to creep up the swell again, but pausing before he was high enough to discern the other side. "They may cross above or below, where you cannot see them," remarked the wife, giving utterance to the very fear that had troubled him some minutes before. "They may do so, but I have just defeated such an attempt, and they will probably wait a while before repeating it." "Then we can have no more favorable time to leave them than now." "Such would be the fact, if I only knew of a surety that they would wait a while." "I am afraid you are making a mistake, George." "It may be, but my judgment is against what you propose. Suppose that, at the moment of starting, they should appear on this side; they would run us down within a few hundred yards." "Are not our ponies as fleet as theirs?" "Probably; but with Dot to look after, you would have more than your hands full, and nothing could save us." "I could manage her very well; but do as you think best. We can only pray to Heaven to protect us all." Looking to the westward, the rancher saw the pack-pony just vanishing from sight in the gloom. Brief as was the time that he had left the Sioux without watching, he felt that it had been too long, and he now made his way up the swell until he could peer over at the other bank, where the red men were awaiting the very chance he gave them that moment. The narrowest escape of his life followed. Providentially, his first glance was directed at the precise spot where a crouching Sioux made a slight movement with his rifle, which gave the white man an instant's warning of his peril. He ducked his head, and had he not instinctively closed his eyes, would have been blinded by the dust and snow thrown against his face, as the leaden ball whizzed through the air, falling on the prairie a long distance away. In its flight it passed directly over the heads of the wife and child, who noticed the peculiar whistling sound a few feet above them. But they were as safe from such danger as if a mile away. The swell of the bank would not allow any missile to come nigh enough to harm them. "Don't be frightened," he said, with a reassuring smile, "they can't touch you as long as they are on the other side." "But how long will they stay there?" asked the wife, unable to repress her uneasiness over the tardiness of her husband. "Molly," said he, stirred by a sudden thought, "why not ride after the pack-horse?" "And leave you here?" was the astonished question. "Only for a few minutes; you will gain a good start, and it won't take me long to come up with you. I can put my pony on a run, and we shall gain invaluable time."