against a stone told him they were coming, and he flattened to the
earth and closed his eyes that his ears might be more keen. The
Falins were riding silently, but as the first two passed under
him, one said:

"I'd like to know who the hell warned 'em!"

"Whar's the Red Fox?" was the significant answer.

The boy's heart leaped. There had been deviltry abroad, but his
kinsmen had escaped. No one uttered a word as they rode two by
two, under him, but one voice came back to him as they turned the
point.

"I wonder if the other boys ketched young Dave?" He could not
catch the answer to that--only the oath that was in it, and when
the sound of the horses' hoofs died away, he turned over on his
back and stared up at the sky. Some trouble had come and through
his own caution, and the mercy of Providence that had kept him
away from the Gap, he had had his escape from death that day. He
would tempt that Providence no more, even by climbing back to his
horse in the waning light, and it was not until dusk had fallen
that he was leading the beast down the spur and into a ravine that
sank to the road. There he waited an hour, and when another
horseman passed he still waited a while. Cautiously then, with
ears alert, eyes straining through the darkness and Winchester
ready, he went down the road at a slow walk. There was a light in
the first house, but the front door was closed and the road was
deep with sand, as he knew; so he passed noiselessly. At the
second house, light streamed through the open door; he could hear