At St. Mary's 



" I say," said I, " that they will un- 

 doubtedly come back to the same place. 

 We did not have a fair show yesterday/' I 

 continued tentatively. 



" Yes ; we were taken unawares." 



I looked over my shoulder at him, and 

 caught his eye. 



"All right," he answered; and in a few 

 moments we were retracing our trail of 

 yesterday, some bacon and coffee in our 

 saddle-bag pockets, and two men following 

 to take care of us. 



We were going to try them once more. 



Three hours later two figures might 

 have been seen toiling up the steep side of 

 Kootenai Mountain. They were on the 

 side of a deep ravine, going slowly, and, in 

 spite of the loose rock, going noislessly. 

 Far above them, near the head of the 

 ravine and on one side, stood a clump of 

 fir-brush. A half-hour later they had 

 gained this shelter, and were lying side by 

 side, softly panting from their exertions. 

 Shortly one of them, leaving his carbine, 

 cautiously crawled to the edge of a ridge 

 separating the ravine up which they had 

 been creeping from another and deeper one 



296 



