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Rh hid away all the weapons but two pistols, one of which he stuck in his shirt bosom and gave the other to Ralph.

"We must keep apart," said Ralph. "Then if he attacks one or the other the free one can fire on him."

"That's good generalship," returned Dan, with a grim smile.

By this time the Indian rider was close to the dooryard, and Dan walked outside to meet him. As soon as the youth appeared, the savage halted his steed.

"How! How!" he said, in guttural tones, meaning "How do you do?"

"How are you?" returned Dan.

"Wolf Ear is sick—got pain here," and the red man pointed to his stomach.

"Sick, eh? What have you been doing, eating and drinking too much?"

"No, Wolf Ear big sick two moons past,—sick come back,—can't ride and must lay down," groaned the savage, grating his teeth as if in intense pain. "White boy help Wolf Ear, me lof him."

Under ordinary circumstances Dan would have been touched by this appeal, for he knew that the Indians suffered just as many aches and pains as did the white folks.

"I am no good at doctoring sick men," he