becomes weary, and then he'll be back here, and we'll hare to contrive
some other way, or it may be that good luck will lead him to the opening
for which he sighs. Heaven grant that the same may be the case."

He waited, and watched, and hoped, as the hours passed by, until he began
to believe that something serious had happened to him. At intervals he
repeated his signals, but on no occasion was there anything like a
response.

It was an odd juxtaposition of events that, at the very moment he uttered
some of the calls, the despairing kid was doing the same thing, and,
although each strained his ears to the utmost, yet neither suspected the
truth.

The hours and the time passed on, until happening to look up at the
opening, Mickey saw the prepared blanket slowly descending, just as Fred
looked upon it from the ridge.

"I'm obliged to yees," he said, in an undertone, "but I don't find myself
in pressing naad of the same. I have one here, but if ye insist on my
taking that, I'll not quarrel with yees."

He resolved that when it came down within his reach he would cut the
lasso, and take it, but before it reached the ground he had changed his
mind.

He knew what the intention of the Apaches was, but he was not deceived for
an instant.

"I'll not do anything at all," he muttered; "I'll not interfere, where