All unmindful of this discussion Maj went on eating the bones that had been thrown to him and looking as if he had room for a great many more than were in sight.
After this very informal meal was over the chief gave an order to his own people and then told Sam that he and his friends must follow him.
"Where to?" asked Sam.
"We see, me don't know," was the surly reply.
As there was no food left, Sam rolled up the blankets and throwing these and the saddle-bags containing the gold dust and the precious paper over his shoulder, started up the ravine.
Ike and Wah Shin followed, the former clinging to his old shot-gun as if his life depended on it.
Eight lithe Indians, none of them burdened with clothes or the world's goods, brought up the rear.
On reaching the uplands the chief came to a halt, the others doing the same, and shading his eyes from the sun, he looked long and eagerly to the eastward.
With a thrill of joy Sam saw that neither Ulna nor his pursuers were in sight, and well knowing the young Ute's powers as a runner, he had now no fears of his being overtaken.
As if he understood what was passing in the white youth's mind, the chief said: