Page:Hendryx--Connie Morgan with the Mounted.djvu/130

112 like beavers in the strengthening of their barricade. So precipitous were the escarpments of the ridge upon the three sides bounded by the creek that any attack from this quarter was out of the question; and Ick Far pointed out the narrow foot trail that showed as a faint tracery upon the face of the rock wall.

"Me go oop. Tell de Brushwood we com'. You stay here. I wave um blanket, you com' oop.

Connie nodded: "Go ahead—and hurry. Before the Mooseheads find out there is a path on this side."

Swift and silent as a shadow, the Indian scout made his way to the creek, forded it, and began the ascent of the foot trail, while from their position among the rocks of the hilltop, the three watched his movements with breathless interest. Looks like a fly a-crawlin' up a wall," whispered Toad Jones.

"P-s-s-s-s-t," the sound hissed sharply between Tex Gordon's clenched teeth, and his hand pressed Toad closer behind his rock. And not a moment too soon, for there, not twenty yards distant, also intently watching Ick Far's ascent, crouched two