When he caught sight of the wall stretched across the valley, he
rubbed his eyes, and looked at it again and again, scarcely able to
credit his senses. He was sure it was not there a few hours before,
and he could not comprehend what it could mean; but it was a verity,
and his experience told him that it could be the work of no one except
the Indians, who had outwitted him at last.

His first feeling was that of indignation toward the boy who had
permitted this to take place while he was asleep, but his mind quickly
turned upon the more important matter of meeting the peril, which,
beyond all doubt, was of the most serious character.

As yet he had not stirred his body, and looking toward the prison
wall, he caught a glimpse of the phantom-like figures, as they
occasionally flitted about, securing the best possible position,
before the whites should awake.

This glimpse made everything plain to the practical mind of Baldy
Bicknell. He comprehended that the red-skins had laid a plan to entrap
the steam man. More than to entrap themselves, and that, so far as he
could judge, they had succeeded completely.

It was the tightest fix in which he had ever been caught, and his
mind, fertile as it was in expedients at such crises, could see no way
of meeting the danger.

He knew the Indians had horses somewhere at command, while neither he
nor his comrades had a single one. The steam man would be unable to
pass that formidable wall, as it was not to be supposed that he had