adapted to packing the boys' belongings over the rugged mountains.
For their guide they had engaged a full-blooded Shawnee Indian named
Joe Hawk, known among his people as Eagle-eye, making a party of six,
with eight head of stock in all.

At the time of the beginning of this narrative the Pony Riders were
encamped on a fork of the White River some three days out from
Springfield. Joe Hawk had asked permission to leave the party for the
night to pay a visit to a fellow-tribesman who lived somewhere in the
mountains to the west of them.

On second thought it occurred to Professor Zepplin that perhaps it
might have been Joe, or Eagle-eye, as the boys had decided to call the
Indian, whom he had heard skulking about the camp.

"Eagle-eye," he called softly.

There was no response, so the Professor, gripping his gun resolutely,
crept along toward the opposite side of the camp where the noise had
seemed to come from. So quietly had he moved that he made scarcely a
sound, until suddenly there came a commotion that more than made up
for the noise he had so successfully avoided before.

Stacy Brown, with his usual forgetfulness, had left his saddle in the
middle of the camp. The Professor caught his toe on the obstruction,
measuring his length on the ground instantly, where he floundered
about for a few seconds.

"Instead of discovering the other fellow, I think I am discovering
myself," he growled, scrambling to his feet, gingerly rubbing a knee.