'twas richard jennifer who first broke the noontide silence of the mountain top, voicing the query which was thrusting sharp at all of us.

"now how in the name of all the fiends did they make shift to burrow from yonder bag-bottom into this?" he would say.

"ez i allow, that's jest what the good lord fotched us here for—to find out," was yeates's rejoinder. "do you and the chief, cap'n john, circumambylate this here pitfall yon way, whilst cap'n dick and i go t'other way 'round. by time we've made the circuit and j'ined company again, i reckon we'll know for sartain whether 'r no they climm' the mounting to get in."

so when we had breathed us a little the circuiting was begun, ephraim yeates and jennifer going toward the lower end of the sink, and the catawba and i in the opposite direction.

since we must examine closely every rift and crevice in the boundary cliff, it was a most tedious undertaking; and i do remember how my great trooper boots, sun-drying on my feet, made every step a wincing agony. they say an army goes upon its belly, but an old campaigner will tell you that you can march a soldier till he be too thin to cast a shadow if only he hath ease of his footgear.

taking it all in all, it proved a slow business, this looping of the sunken valley; and when we had worked around to the eastern cliff and to a meeting point with the old hunter and richard jennifer, the sun was level in our faces and the day was waning.

coming together again, we made haste to compare notes. there was little enough to add to the common fund of information, and the mystery of the lost trail remained a mystery. true, we, the indian and i, had found a ravine at the extreme upper end of the valley through which, we thought, a sure-footed horse might be led at a pinch, up or down; but this ravine had not been used by the powder train, and apart from it there was no practicable horse path leading down from the plateau.

as for the hunter and richard, they had made a discovery which might stand for what it was worth. at its lower extremity the sunken valley was separated from the great gorge without only by a ridge which was no more than a huge dam; and this diking ridge was evidently tunneled by the stream, since the latter had no visible outlet.

inasmuch as the most favorable point of espial upon the camp below was the cliff whence we had first looked down into the sink, we harked back thither, passing around the lower end of the valley and along the barrier ridge. plan we had none as yet, for the preliminary to any attempt at a rescue must be some better knowledge of the way into and out of falconnet's cunningly chosen stronghold. true, we might win in and out again by the ravine which the chief and i had explored at the upper end, and dick was for trying this when the night should give us the curtain of darkness for a shield. but the old hunter would hold this forlorn hope in reserve as a last resort.

"sort it out for yourself, cap'n dick," he argued. "whatsomedever we make out to do—four on us ag'inst that there whole enduring army o' their'n—has got to be done on the keen jump, with a toler'ble plain hoss-road for the skimper-scamper race when it is done. for, looking it up and down and side to side, we've got to have hosses—some o' their hosses, at that. i jing! if we could jest make out somehow 'r other to lay our claws on the beasteses aforehand—"

we had reached the cliff and were once more peering down at the enemy's camp. though for the cliff-shadowed valley it was long past sunset and all the depths were blue and purple in the changing half-lights of the hour, the shadow veil was but a gauze of color, softening the details without obscuring them. so we could mark well the metes and bounds of the camp and prick in all the items.

the camp field was the largest of the savannas or natural clearings. on the margin of the stream the indian lodges were pitched in a semicircle to face the water. farther back, falconnet's troop was hutted in rough-and-ready shelters made of pine boughs—these disposed to stand between the camp of the cherokees and the tepee-lodge of the captive women which stood among the trees in that edge of the forest hemming the slope which buttressed our cliff of observation.

at first we sought in vain for the storing-place of the powder. it was the sharp eyes of the catawba that finally descried it. a rude housing of pine boughs, like the huts of the troopers, had been built at the base of a great boulder on the opposite bank of the stream; and here was the lading of the powder train.

from what could be seen 'twas clear that the camp was no mere bivouac for the day; indeed, the englishmen were still working upon their pine-bough shelters, building themselves in as if for a stay indefinite.

"'tis a rest camp," quoth dick; "though why they should break the march here is more than i can guess."

"no," said ephraim yeates. "'tain't jest rightly a rest camp, ez i take it. ez i was a-saying last night, this here is tuckasege country, and we ain't no furder than a day's running from the cowee towns. now the tuckaseges and the over-mounting cherokees ain't always on the best o' tarms, and i was a wondering if the hoss-captain hadn't sot down here to wait whilst he could send a peace-offer' o' powder and lead on to the cowee chiefs to sort o' smooth the way."

"no send him yet; going to send," was uncanoola's amendment. "look-see, chelakee braves make haste for load horses down yonder now!"

again the sharp eyes of the catawba had come in play. at the foot of the great boulder some half dozen of the cherokees were busy with the powder cargo, lashing pack-loads of it upon two horses. one of the group, who appeared to be directing the labor of the others, stood apart, holding the bridle reins of three other horses caparisoned as for a journey. when the loading was accomplished to the satisfaction of the horse-holding chieftain, he and two others mounted, took the burdened animals in tow, and the small cavalcade filed off down the stream toward the apparent cul de sac at the lower end of the valley.

ephraim yeates was up in a twinkling, dragging us back from the cliff edge.

"up with ye!" he cried. "now's our chance to kill two pa'tridges with one stone! if we can make out to get down into t'other valley in time to see how them varmints come out, we'll know the way in. more'n that, we can ambush 'em and so make sartain sure o' five o' the six hosses we're a-going to need, come night. but we've got to leg for it like ahimaaz the son of zadok!"

thus the old borderer; and being only too eager to come to handgrips with the enemy, we were up and running faster than ever joab's messenger ran, long before the old man finished with his scriptural simile.

not to take the risk of delay on any unexplored short cut, we made straight for the ravine of our ascent, found it as by unerring instinct, and were presently racing down to the indian trace in the little upland valley above the gorge.

for all the helter-skelter haste i found time to remember that the gorge as we had last seen it had been well besprinkled with armed cherokees lying in wait for us. if they were still there we should be like to have a hot welcome; and some reminder of this i gasped out to yeates in mid flight.

"ne'm mind that; if we run up ag'inst 'em anywhere, 'twon't be there-away. they've took the hint and quit; scattered out to hunt us long ago," was his answer, jerked out between bounds. and after that i loosed the ferara in its sheath and saved my breath as i might for the killing business of the moment.

'twas a sharp disappointment that, for all the haste of our mad scramble down the mountain, we were too late to surprise the secret of the enemy's stronghold. the catawba was leading when we dashed down into the valley, and one glance sent him flying back to stop us short with a dumb show purporting that the quarry was already out of the defile and coming up the indian path.

richard swore grievously, but the old backwoodsman took the checkmate placidly and began to set the pieces for the second game in which the horses were the stake, hiding his useless rifle in a hollow tree,—his powder had been soaked and spoiled in the early morning plunge for life,—and drawing his hunting-knife to feel its edge and point.

"ez i allow, that fotches us to the hoss-lifting," he said, in his slow drawl. then he laid his commands upon us. "ord'ly, and in sojer-fashion, now; no whooping and yelling. if the hoss-captain's got scouts out a-s'arching for us, one good screech from these here varmints we're a-going to put out'n their mis'ry 'u'd fix our flints for kingdom come. i ain't none afeard o' your nerve,"—this to richard and me—"leastwise, not when it comes to fair and square sojer-fighting. but this here onfall has got to be like the smiting o' the 'malekites—root and branch; and if ye're tempted to be anywise marciful, jest ricollect that for the sake o' them wimmen-folks we've got to have these hosses!"

you are not to suppose that he was holding us inactive while he thus exhorted us. on the contrary, he was posting us skilfully beside the trace like the shrewd old indian fighter that he was, with a rare and practised eye to the maximum of cover with the minimum of thicket tangle to impede the rush or to shorten the sword-swing.

but when all was done we were at this disadvantage; that since the enemy was close at hand we dared not cross the path to give our trap a jaw on either side. to offset this, the catawba dropped out of line and disappeared; and when the cherokees were no more than a hundred yards away, uncanoola came in sight a like distance in the opposite direction, running easily down the path to meet the up-coming riders.

richard let slip an admiration-oath under his breath. "there's a fine bit of strategy for you!" he whispered. "that wily jack-at-a-pinch of ours will befool them into believing that he is a runner from the cowee towns. 'tis our cue to lie close; he will halt them just here, and there will be roving eyes in the heads of the two who have not to talk."

we had not long to wait. our cunning ally timed his halting of the emissaries to a nicety, and when the three cherokees drew rein they were within easy blade's reach. the powwow, lengthened by uncanoola till we were near bursting with impatience, was spun out wordily, and presently we saw the pointing of it. the catawba was affecting to doubt the protests of the emissaries and would have them dismount and prove their good faith by smoking the peace-pipe with him.

i give you fair warning, my dears, that you may turn the page here and skip what follows if you are fain to be tender-hearted on the score of these savage enemies of ours. it was in the very summer solstice of the year of violence; a time when he who took the sword was like to perish with the sword; and we thought of little save that margery and her handmaiden were in deadliest peril, and that these indians had five horses which we must have.

and as for my own part in the fray, when i recognized in the five-feathered chieftain of the three that copper-hued imp of satan who had been the merciless master of ceremonies at the torturing of my poor black tomas, the decent meed of mercy which even a seasoned soldier may cherish died within me, and i made sure the steel would find its mark.

so, when uncanoola drew forth his tobacco pipe and made the three doomed ones sit with him in the path to smoke the peace-whiff all around, we picked out each his man and smote to slay. the scythe-like sweep of jennifer's mighty claymore left the five-feathered chieftain the shorter by a head in the same pulse-beat that the ferara scanted a second of the breath to yell with; though now i recall it, the gurgling death-cry of the poor wretch with the steel in his throat was more terrible to hear than any war-whoop. as for the old borderer, he was more deliberate. being fair behind and within arm's reach of his man, he seized him by the scalp-lock, bent the head backward across his knee—but, faugh! these are the merest butcher details, and i would spare you—and myself, as well.

while yet this most merciless deed was a-doing, the catawba bounded to his feet and made sure of the horses which were rearing and snorting with affright. that done, he must needs gloat, indian-wise, over his fallen adversary, turning the headless body with his foot and gibing at it.

"wah! call hisself the great bear, hey? heap lie; heap no bear; heap nothing, now. papoose bear no let hisself be trap' that way. no smoke peace-pipe—"

but now ephraim yeates, standing ear a-cock and motionless, like some grim old statue done in leather, cut him short with a sudden, "hist, will ye!" and a twinkling instant later we had other work to do.

"onto the hosses with this here injun-meat, ez quick ez the loving lord'll let ye!" was the sharp command. "there's a whole clanjamfrey o' the varmints a-coming down the trace, and i reckon ez how we'd better scratch gravel immejitly, if not sooner!"