"What are you doing up there?" he shouted, for Sile had clambered away up among the rocks of the lodge and stood upon a sort of pinnacle, spy-glass in hand. "Cavalry, father! They are coming. Cavalry--" "Come down!" "Right in this direction. Riding hard. Hurrah!" The new rifle of Two Arrows could not have won him the glory of that discovery and announcement. Once more the peculiar advantages of pale-faces over red men were forced upon him, but somehow it did but stir up his ambition, and with it a quick, daring impulse. He sprang away up the valley for a horse. He rushed in among the gathered animals of the corral, and boldly picked out his father's best and swiftest mustang, a beast that could run like the wind. He asked for no saddle, and the bridle went on as if by magic. Sile came down from his perch at a rate that risked his neck, and made a report which drew from Yellow Pine, "I'd call it--Jedge, if we could only let them fellers know we're here, it would be wuth a heap." Before all who echoed that wish had finished speaking Two Arrows came dashing towards the barrier, all ready for the errand. "Give the youngster three cheers!" shouted Yellow Pine. "Hurrah for him!" CHAPTER XXX A DARING RIDE For the moment there was not one Apache horseman lingering within reach of the sharpshooters at the gap, and it was possible to get away from it unseen. All peril would come afterwards, but there was a vast amount of it, and the proposed errand of Two Arrows called for unlimited courage. His light weight upon a fresh racer gave him some advantage over heavy warriors upon horses already hard ridden, but this fact did not cover the whole question by any means, for a bullet will travel faster than the swiftest mustang. Sile did his best to communicate every fact that his spy-glass had given him; Long Bear said "Ugh!" with a deep and expressive intonation; the logs were removed from the entrance; and then Na-tee-kah's heart beat terribly, for she saw her hero brother dash forth all alone, she could not guess why nor whither. Then there was another sudden commotion, for Yellow Pine shouted, and Long Bear echoed it in his own tongue, "Mount, men! Mount and be ready, every mother's son of ye! I'm jest going to back that there young catamount if it costs me my hair!" There was the swiftest kind of saddling and mounting, and not a Nez Perce boy old enough to draw a bow was willing to be left behind. When, therefore, the whole force rode out upon the slope in front of the notch, it looked a good deal stronger than it really was. All that work required many minutes, and during all of these the daring young messenger had been doing capitally.