"Shall we attack them the moment they approach?"
"I believe," answered Ralph "that is our only hope."
"How many could you see in the party?"
"About a dozen."
The wagon had been camped behind a clump of shrubbery, not over twenty feet from the small rivulet, and to the north of them the stream made a slight turn, so that the party appeared in view to the watchers as soon as they reached the wagon, and Ralph was the first to recognize their late enemies.
To the surprise of the boys, the savages stopped, not a thousand feet away, but on the opposite side of the stream, and built a fire preparatory to cooking some game which had fallen into their hands.
"Well, this is interesting. They are going to have some luncheon, too. Wouldn't this be a good time to slip away?"
"I am afraid," answered Tom, "that it would be a dangerous business. The creaking of that rear wheel would put them on our track at once. Couldn't we grease the wheel?" Tom was very much in earnest now.
As quietly as possible the wheel was removed, and some very good butter, the only thing available, was used to ease it up, and the wheel was gotten back in quick time.
Unfortunately the wagon tongue pointed toward the river, the very direction which they dared not go, for fear of exposing their presence, so they had to push the wagon back, by their combined energy, and as noiselessly as it could be done the team was yoked on and slowly moved south, and after traveling a quarter of a mile or more, directed toward the river, and then northwardly, thus making a wide circle in the effort to avoid their camp.