crept, and only those who have slept in the open air in a pure climate
can tell of the exhilarating effects that follow a slumber under the
conditions described.

Desmond was the first to awake, and he peeped forth from his crevice and
glanced down toward the point where the fire had been, when he beheld a
sight that caused his blood to run cold. Five fierce-looking savages
were grouped around the spot where the campfire had been, and he had a
chance to study a scene he had never before witnessed. He beheld five
savages in full war paint; they were dressed in a most grotesque manner,
part of their attire being fragments of United States uniforms, showing
that the red men had been in a skirmish, and possibly had come out
victorious, and had had an opportunity to strip the bodies of the dead.

A great deal has been written about the shrewdness of redmen. They are
shrewd when their qualities are once fully aroused and they are on the
scent, but they are given to assumptions, the same as white men. Of
course Creedon was practically to be credited when he said that the
Indians assumed there had been a camp there and that the campers had
departed, but had they made as close observations as when on a trail
they would have made discoveries that would have suggested the near
presence of the late campers.

Creedon had as far as possible destroyed all signs when raking out the
fire of a recent encampment, but an experienced and alert eye can detect
the truth despite these little tricks.

Desmond saw the Indians: they were a hard-looking lot, the worst
specimens he had ever beheld, and they were assassins at sight, as he
determined. He was secure from observation, but it was necessary to warn