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"Probably he is going away for assistance." "I shouldn't think he would leave us alone," mused Ralph, his face falling perceptibly. "That makes me feel certain that the Indians don't intend to attack us until dark. Perhaps father heard some of their powwowing, or some talk between them and Stiger. Anyway, I am sure he is going away." "Then we may as well close up tight." "All but the door.
"All right, then, you keep the game!" ejaculated Hank Stiger, in deep rage, and, turning on his mustang, he picked up the deer and flung it to the earth. "But remember, I say I shot that deer and that he is mine. Some day you'll rue your work here, mark my words!"
All ran out of the cabin, and found the frontiersman and the half-breed at the edge of the clearing. Hank Stiger had been struck in the knee and was evidently suffering great pain, for after screaming for awhile he fell back in a dead faint.
"Find out fer yourself!" growled Hank Stiger, and turning swiftly, he started on a run for the nearest corner. "Stop! or I'll fire!" cried Henry Parker, as he drew his pistol, but before he could make up his mind whether or not he had a right to fire on the half-breed, Stiger was out of sight. Dan ran after him, and his friend joined in the chase.
Instantly Amos Radbury's face flushed, and he sprang to his feet. "Stiger, you are falsifying! I do not believe you!" he exclaimed. "It's de truf." "It is not. You have either hidden the papers or else given them to somebody." At this the half-breed shrugged his shoulders again. "You cannot deceive me longer," went on the settler. "By and by you will want food and more water.
He could not make out who was there, but saw it was somebody with a gun, and the sight of the weapon was enough for him. "What's up?" came from Poke Stover, who had been snoring in the corner, and the old frontiersman scrambled to his feet and joined Dan at the doorway. "There goes Hank Stiger! He was going to blow up the cabin with our keg of gunpowder." "Can it be possible! I'll stop him."
Ralph was going on, with his eyes bent to the trail, when suddenly his brother caught him by the arm, bringing him to a halt. In silence Dan pointed to the opposite side of the creek, at a distance a hundred feet farther up the water-course. "It's Hank Stiger, the half-breed!" burst in a low tone from Ralph's lips. "And see, he is tying my deer fast to his pony." "You are right, Ralph."
"Ha! did Big Foot tell " Stiger broke off short, realising that he was exposing himself. "Yes, Big Foot told me everything," said Dan. "And you must give up those papers, or take the consequence." Hank Stiger's face grew as dark as a thunder-cloud. "I'll pay off that Injun for it!" he cried. "I knew he wasn't to be trusted, the skunk! But I ain't got no papers, never had 'em!
As the Indians came out into the open, Hank Stiger met them. "He will join them now if he wasn't with them before," thought Dan, and in this he was right. The Indians and Stiger held a short talk, and then all three disappeared in the belt of timber surrounding the burn. "Can you see anything?" called up Ralph. "Yes, several Indians, and Stiger has joined them." "Stiger! And what of father?"
This was the straw which broke the camel's back, so far as Hank Stiger was concerned, and with much hesitation he told his story, which in substance was as follows: About six months before, he had fallen in with a man of mixed American and Spanish blood named Carlos Martine, who was anxious to obtain possession of a large grant of land on the Guadalupe from the Radbury claim northward.
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