THE BURNING CABIN.
A dim, shadowy, phantom-like chain flitting silently through the forest depths. A living chain, composed of human beings—at least in outward semblance—bent upon an errand of bloodshed and death.
They pause at the edge of a considerable clearing, and gaze out upon it. A rude log-cabin stands here at the foot of a good-sized hill. In the darkness, it seems as though there were two buildings, but one is a huge square bowlder. A mass of rock that has puzzled many to tell where it came from. It gives a name to the cabin and its owners, "the people of the lodge by the great rock."
The cabin is the one where we met the Stevens family. The human chain is led by One Eye—Sloan Young, the half-breed heretofore alluded to. He and his comrades have come here to perform their part of the bloody plan, to further which the Indian, Bob-tailed Horse, had been sent to gain admittance into the cabin.
"It is nearly time," muttered One Eye, in the Sioux dialect.
"Yes, the pale-faces are asleep before now," added one of the Indians.
"We will not wait any longer. Come, let us go," and One Eye entered the clearing and glided stealthily toward the cabin that stood silent and gloomy in the shadow of the hill.
The half-breed paused when beside the rude structure and uttered a call; one common to that place and time of year—the cry of the night-hawk. Then he stepped forward and pressed gently against the door.
To his surprise it did not yield. He again uttered the signal, upon which the traitor was to throw wide the door, but still without the desired result.
"The fool has drank fire-water until his brain is asleep! He has forgotten his duty," angrily hissed the half-breed.