"Inside of a week, mebbe within three days. The last I heard of Lone
Wolf, he was down in the direction of the Llano Estaeado, some two or
three hundred miles from here, and it won't take him long to come that
distance."

"Is he the only Indian chief in this country, that ye talk so much
about him?"

"Oh, no! there are plenty of 'em, but Lone Wolf has a special weakness
for such parties as this."

"When he does come, what is best for us to do?"

"You'll make the best fight you can, of course, and if you get licked,
as I've no doubt you will, and you're well mounted, you must all
strike a bee-line for Fort Severn, and never stop till you reach the
stockades. You can't miss the road, for you've only got to ride
toward the setting sun, as though you meant to dash your animal right
through it."

"Where will the spalpeen come from?"

The hunter pointed toward the woods before them.

"That's just the place the varmints would want--they could n't want
any nicer. You may be lookin' at that spot, and they'll crawl right
in afore you'r eyes, and lay thar for hours without your seein' 'em.
You want to get things fixed, so that you can make a good fight when
they do swoop down on you. I guess that long-legged chap that I was
talkin' to knows enough for that. You seem to have more sense than