50 THE RED MOUNTAIN OF ALASKA. 
ing them, probably with looks of hate. For a friendly 
band would have advanced at once, where the party of 
whites was so evidently a harmless one, with its four 
boys and one middle-aged man. 
The two guides now held a short consultation, and, on 
Mr. Button's return to camp, they darted into the woods. 
The hour spent before their return was one of extreme 
anxiety. The boys knew nothing of their father's appre- 
hensions, and chatted merrily over the supper-getting, 
which, in the absence of the guides, they took into their 
own hands. 
If the Takheesh Indians, in the borders of whose coun- 
try they now were, should take the warpath, they were 
greatly to be feared. Their tribe had been foully treated 
by the traders, and, though few in numbers, the Alaska 
Indians are known to be among the fiercest and most im- 
placable of their race when their evil passions are once 
roused. And if there was danger to his own party, what 
of the other, near by, containing his brother, wife, and 
daughter ? 
While these thoughts were chasing one another through 
Mr. Button's troubled mind, Joe returned, and shortly 
afterward his comrade. 
The information they brought was not reassuring. 
They had struck the trail of the strange Indians, they 
said, in several parts of the surrounding forest, and, 
though they did not come upon the band, the guides were 
pretty sure that they were encamped just beyond a little 
