"Cussed ef sand-paper ain't slick as grease along side o' this streak o' roughness. Won't some one draw a bead on me afore I get my ha'r cut fur nuthin'?"
"Why, what is the trouble now? I hope we are not at fault again?" anxiously remarked Winkle.
"No, we ain't; but it's three to one an' fifty cents a dozen but what Dick Martin an' his boys are. I war so bloody, blarsted particular to leave every thing es I found it, and when they come up, like es not they'll just skyugle straight along on our trail, an' so they're losin' time, an' maybe get tuk in, when we mout just as well as not all be layin' on that trail together. It's too late to fix her now; so here goes."
Winkle's momentary uneasiness having been allayed, the three rode rapidly but moodily on.
CHAPTER VII.
LARIAT DAN'S DISCOVERY.
We have said that the shot which Blaze and Winkle heard had also aroused Endicott and his party. Lariat Dan, a trailer, trapper and guide of the party, and whose experience had been immense, and whose word could not be doubted, said that he had heard, in addition, a woman's scream for help. At this, as it were by instinct, Endicott and Rothven looked at each other. Could it be that the woman of whom they had been conversing but a short time ago, had since been in mortal danger? Endicott wondered, too, whether the conversation he had with Martin had any thing to do with it, or, if some sudden peril had come to the girl as she wandered, as of old, beneath the moonlight? Then Grizzly Dave, a voyageur of some renown, and also of his party, said that he "smelt Injun," and thereat Endicott hastily gave orders for an immediate preparation for a quick move. Accordingly there was a bustle and buzz around the camp, for a few minutes, every man with nervous rapidity attending to his duty.
By the time that Martin and half a score or more of his trusty followers foamed into Endicott's camp, every thing was in a condition that spoke well for the training and agility of the small brigade. So ready, too, were Endicott's company for defense, that more than one saddle of the Free Trappers might have been emptied as they came charging up had not Lariat Dan been acute enough to distinguish the thunder of their horses from the sweep of Indian ponies, and informed Endicott of the number and quality of their approaching visitors. In a moment it seemed to him that he had caught by intuition a glimpse of the position of affairs, and he confronted Martin so earnestly that that worthy's suspicions as to foul play emanating from that camp were at once dispelled.
"Now, then, ef yer man enough to follow Dick Martin, you've a chance to ride behind him. Ther's been some carelessness to-night that'll cost more than the sleepy cusses' brains are worth. Jump into the saddle if you're ready. What you leave in camp is safe as a church, and come on. The red-skin rascals shan't get clear without hard riding and harder fighting."