Page:Edward Ellis--Alden the Pony Express Rider.djvu/90

 forward and peering round the tail of the wagon. He took care to keep a position that shut him from Alden’s sight.

“It’ll be jes’ like him to kick when he sees me standing with my back toward de Injins, and dere ain’t any use ob habing any quarrels at a time like dis.”

When Jethro pivoted to the front for the third time, he held the position longer than usual. The situation was one which impressed even his dull nature. The moon near its full, had risen and shone upon the silent earth below. Ragged, white clouds swept slowly across the sky, like moving mountain peaks of snow. The orb was forever groping among these feathery masses, some of which were attenuated while others had enough body to eclipse the orb for a few minutes. This dodging into view and out again made the light uncertain. The shadows ran swiftly over the ground and whisked out of sight, then came a brief space of gloom, and then the illumination revealed objects with diminishing distinctness, for a hundred yards out on the plain.

It was a night favorable for Indian cunning to do its work. The spring grass was tall enough to allow a warrior to steal through it