"All right!" he muttered to himself. "It's the Frontier Angel, and there's no danger of her hurting any one. She's got sunkthin' to tell, and she's waitin' to see ef I'm about. Howsumever, I'll keep shady a while, just to see how this long-legged feller hyer will jump when she gives notice she's around."
"Anything there?" asked Jenkins, for the third or fourth time.
"Yas, there is; don't make too much noise."
"What makes you stoop down, Dick?" he asked, in a whisper.
"I can see better this way."
"Shan't I stoop down, too?"
"Ef you're afraid."
"I ain't afraid at all, only—O Lord, I'm shot!" suddenly exclaimed Jenkins, falling down and moaning as if in his death struggle. Dingle was not surprised; he had heard the twang of a bow, the whizz of the arrow, and now saw it sticking several feet above him in the wood of the block-house. He had expected this, for it was the manner in which that mysterious being, known along the border as the "Frontier Angel," gave notice of her presence.
"'O Lord, I'm shot,' suddenly exclaimed Jenkins."