“Keep a stiff upper lip, boy! I'm the Screamin' Eagle of Smoky Roost—the Thunderbolt of the Dark-edged Cloud—a reg'lar sky-scraper!”
With a cry of astonishment Gopher Gid started back.
“He knows 'un!” ejaculated Timon Moss; “the time fur the fun to begin is hyar. Now I'll explode a bomb-shell in this durned Injun camp.”
Midnight Jack, without apparently noticing his eager enemy, drew his revolver.
All at once Tanglefoot drew rein, and was turning the pony's head toward Midnight Jack, when a loud cry came from beyond the crowd on the east side of the square.
The peculiar intonation caused no little commotion; it startled the chiefs, and Setting Sun turned to that quarter and commanded the crowd to make way for the young Indian who was advancing at a quick gait, holding two glittering objects above his head.
An exclamation, heard by his nearest companions, fell from the road-agent's lips as the savage glided past and bounded into the square.
“My pistols! I must have hidden them in an Indian cache!”
Setting Sun, and the other head chiefs, uttered exclamations of wonder, as they advanced upon the Indian who had halted near Tanglefoot.
At once thrown into a state of great excitement, the crowd began to surge forward, but the voice of Tiger Tail drove them back.