But Wanatoma, with upraised hand, sprang forward. A few sharp commands, and the Dane backed slowly away, uttering another thrilling bay.
"He who has no respect for Indian's white hair must suffer," said Wanatoma, in a voice that trembled. "I want peace; but, listen, Big Jim, always is the Indian ready for battle, and has no fear."
He stood erect, facing the silent men, defiance in every line of his bronzed, aged face.
Still shaking with terror, Alf Griffin struggled to his feet, and, with his eyes fixed on the Great Dane, slunk quickly behind his companions.
There was something in the old warrior's manner which impressed the rough lumbermen with a feeling of awe. Jim Reynolds spoke up:
"Ye only got what ye desarved, Alf Griffin, an' I tell you right now that any man what tries to do Wanatoma harm has Big Jim Reynolds to reckon with. Me an' him is still fren's, even if he won't tell us 'bout the mine. But, Wanna," he paused an instant, "I'm a squar' man, an' gives ye fair warnin'; I s'picion we knows nigh 'bout whar that mine is located. Anyhow, it won't be hard to trail them boys; an' I reckon if a gold strike is ever staked out the ones that are goin' to do it are standin' right here. So-long, Wanna."
The Indian, with folded arms, nodded gravely, and watched the men file out into the darkness.
But a moment more, and the flaring light had detached them from the somber background for the last time; their forms suddenly melted into gloom, and only the sound of crackling twigs and stumbling feet told of the presence in the wilderness of other human beings beside the Indian.
Wanatoma, almost motionless as a statue, gazed at the gloom of the hillside, at the stars which were beginning to show faintly above; then, as the weird, shrill cry of some nocturnal bird jarred over the air, he sighed, and turned toward the fire.
The blanket was wrapped around his form again. With his hand on the Great Dane's head, he began to rock to and fro on his rude log seat, gazing into the depths of the fire, as though he could read in the glowing flames what the future held in store for the youthful searchers after the Rambler Club's Gold Mine.