It didn't take long for a man who knows Injins to answer THOSE
conundrums. The whole thing was a trap--for me--and I'd walked
into it, chuckle-headed as a prairie-dog!

With that I makes a run outside--by now it was dark--and listens.
Sure enough, I hears hosses. So I makes a rapid sneak back over
the trail.

Everything seemed all right till I got up to the rim-rock. Then
I heard more hosses--ahead of me. And when I looked back I could
see some Injuns already at the shack, and starting to build a
fire outside.

In a tight fix, a man is pretty apt to get scared till all hope
is gone. Then he is pretty apt to get cool and calm. That was
my case. I couldn't go ahead--there was those hosses coming
along the trail. I couldn't go back--there was those Injins
building the fire. So I skirmished around till I got a bright
star right over the trail head, and I trained old Meat-in-the-
pot to bear on that star, and I made up my mind that when the
star was darkened I'd turn loose. So I lay there a while
listening. By and by the star was blotted out, and I cut loose,
and old Meat-in-the-pot missed fire--she never did it before nor
since; I think that cartridge--

Well, I don't know where the Injins came from, but it seemed as
if the hammer had hardly clicked before three or four of them
bad piled on me. I put up the best fight I could, for I wasn't
figuring to be caught alive, and this miss-fire deal had fooled