“I wonder if the old fellow is asleep?” he muttered. “I’ve almost forgot the way into his den, and am not sure that I can find it.”
At that moment the solemn hoot of an owl coming from the highest pinnacle of the cliff above, broke the silence that reigned around.
“That’ll fetch him out,” muttered Dick. “That bird serves him better than a red-skin would, perched up there. His eagle watches for him by day and his owl by night, and I’ll defy anybody to come round here without their knowing it. I don’t see how the old chap has got ’em trained so well as he has. There he goes ag’in. I should think that one such a hoot as that was enough to announce anybody. But hark! Somebody else is coming. I’ll be darned if that ’ere bird don’t know more than a human.”
A footstep only a few rods away had at that moment fallen upon the ear of the scout.
Close beside where he stood was a huge bowlder which at some former time had toppled down from the hight above, and it was only the work of a moment for him to ensconce himself behind it in such a manner that he would not readily be discovered.
“We won’t be hoggish, Susannah,” he said, in a whisper, as he placed his rifle so that it would be ready for instant use. “We’ll let the Wizard see this visitor first. I don’t see who in nater it can be who dares to venture here arter dark.”
The footstep came nearer and nearer, and in a few moments the scout caught a glimpse of a figure in the moonlight approaching the spot he had just vacated.
To his astonishment he saw that it was an Indian maiden, and as the moonlight fell full upon her features he saw that she was fair and comely.
“Well, this is the master,” muttered the scout. “Who would have thought that the old chap had such visitors as this?”
The Indian girl paused upon the very spot he had so lately vacated, and despite the lack of determination upon her face, he could see mingled with it, a look of apprehension as though she feared the interview she had evidently come to crave of the Wizard.