It took Ned about a minute to reach his merciful conclusion and to lower the hammer of his gun. This done, he looked out to see how the Indian was getting along. To his amazement¹ nothing was seen of him. He had vanished as suddenly as if the ground had opened and swallowed him up. Wondering what it all could mean, the boy rose to his feet, and peered out, parting the bushes still more and advancing a little from his concealment². The ground was quite level, covered here and there with boulders³ and a scrubby undergrowth, but there was nothing to be seen of the warrior⁴. During the second or two occupied in lowering the hammer of his rifle, the Apache had disappeared, flashing out, so to speak, into nothingness.  
"That's mighty⁵ queer," reflected Ned, as he resumed his seat under the bushes. "I know those redskins are pretty lively, but I didn't think they could get up and leave as fast as that."
 
There was something in the manner of this thing which alarmed him. The Apache, when last seen, was advancing carefully in the direction taken by the scouts⁷. Why this sudden diversion? What did it mean but that the redskin had made an important discovery, and what could that discovery be but that he was threatened by danger from the rear? Such being the case, it followed that the peril⁸ had been transferred from one to the other. Instead of the lad threatening the Indian it was vice⁹ versa.
 
"I bet he'll be back here," was the conclusion of our hero, as he once more raised the hammer of his gun. "He must have heard me when I moved the bushes, and he'll be trying some of his tricks upon me."
 
He concluded that if the Indian made him a visit it would be from another direction, and so he shifted his position somewhat, managing to face the other way, while he kept all his senses on the qui vive for the hostile visit which he was confident would not be long delayed. At the same time he had a strong hope that the scouts would return in time to prevent any such encounter as he pictured in his own mind, and which he thoroughly¹⁰ dreaded¹¹.
 
In his excited mental condition it was impossible to judge accurately¹² of the passage of time, but it seemed to him that he had been in waiting fully⁶ fifteen minutes, yet not the slightest sound reached him from that direction. The lad remained in a state of suspense¹³ which was intensified¹⁴ by his fears of a flank movement upon the part of the Apache whom he had seen but a short time before.
 
"It must take them a long time to make a reconnaissance—"
 
He suddenly ceased, for his ear, more than usually alert, caught a slight but suspicious sound, and quick as a flash he turned his head. He was not an instant too soon, for there was the crouching¹⁵ figure of the Apache warrior, no more than a dozen feet distant, his gleaming knife clutched in his right hand, and his eyes fairly aflame with passion. He was not moving along inch by inch, but with that soft gliding¹⁶ motion, which was more like the approach of a serpent than of a person.
 
Ned still held his rifle with the hammer raised, and ready for just such an emergency. Partly expecting the visit, he was fully prepared. When he turned his head and encountered the gaze of the Indian, the latter gave utterance¹⁷ to a low gutteral exclamation¹⁸, and started more rapidly toward him.
 
"If you must have it, there it is."
 
The flash from the muzzle¹⁹ of the rifle was almost in the face of the Apache, who, with a death-shriek horrible to hear, threw both arms above his head, and, with a spasmodic twitching²⁰ of the limbs, breathed his last in a single breath.
 
Ned was scarcely less terrified than the redskin must have been at the first flash of the gun; and, forgetful of the warning of the scouts, he leaped out from beneath the bushes, and dashed away in the direction taken by his friends.
 
He had run but a rod or two when he suddenly found himself face to face with Tom Hardynge, who d............