"Gracious, Rasco, you vouldn't hit me, afther I ride me dree miles und more ter tole you?" wailed the German, reproachfully. "I d.i.n.k me you vos mine pest friend, next to p.a.w.nee Prown, ain't it?"

"There'll be a dead Dutchman here in another minute if yer don't open up clear down ter the bottom!" howled Rasco, who had never before suffered such exasperation.

"Tell us the exact trouble," put in d.i.c.k, calmly. He saw that exciting Humpendinck still more would do no good.

"Der Indian haf carried dot girl avay!" exploded Humpendinck.

"Carried the girl away!" e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed d.i.c.k.

"My Nellie?" yelled Rasco.

"Dot's it, Rasco. Ain't it awful! Dot Irish vomans seen dot Indian mit dot girl in his arms, flying der trail ofer like a biece of baber pefore a cyclone alretty!"

"Humpendinck, are you telling the truth?"

"I vos tole you vot dot Irish vomans tole me. Mike Delaney und dree udder mans vos lookin' for you."

On the instant Louis Vorlange was forgotten, not only by Rasco, ut also by d.i.c.k. It made both shudder to think that Nellie had been carried off by a redskin. They turned into the trail from which Humpendinck had emerged, and were soon on their way to the camp.

Here Rosy Delaney was found very much disturbed. She came up to Rasco wringing her hands.

"To think o' the red rascal a-takin' thet young leddy off!" she cried.

"I know her by thet photygraph! Och, the villain! An' it moight have been Rosy Delaney, bad cess to him!"

"Show me the exact trail he followed," said Rasco, and this the Irish woman did willingly. Soon Rasco was tearing over the prairie, followed by Humpendinck, Delaney, Clemmer and by d.i.c.k, who borrowed a horse from another boomer.

The trail left by Yellow Elk was easily followed to the vicinity of Honnewell, but here it led away to the southwest and was swallowed up among the bushes and rocks leading down into the ravine previously mentioned.

"Oi reckon thot's the trail," said Delaney, after an examination.

"And I vos d.i.n.k dot ist der trail," put in Humpendinck.

"An' I calkerlate this is the trail," added Cal Clemmer.

Each pointed in a different direction, while Rasco and d.i.c.k were of the opinion that none of them were right and that the trail led up the ravine, just as it really did.

An interruption now occurred. There was a stir in the bushes above their heads, and an elderly scout peered down upon them, rifle in hand.

"Hullo, Jack Rasco, wot's the best word? Whar is p.a.w.nee Brown?"

"Dan Gilbert!" cried Rasco. "Come down, p.a.w.nee ought to be somewhere about here."

In a moment more Dan Gilbert, a heavy-set, pleasant-looking frontiersman, stood among them. A hasty consultation immediately followed. Dan Gilbert was on his way back to where he had left the blaze on the tree, and it was decided that Rasco and d.i.c.k should accompany him, while Clemmer, Delaney and Humpendinck went to reconnoitre in the opposite direction. A double pistol shot from either party was to bring the other to its aid.

In less than five minutes the first party was on its way to the blazed tree. Dan Gilbert feeling certain that if p.a.w.nee Brown had pa.s.sed that way he must have seen the sign and left word of his own.

"If p.a.w.nee was down here you can bet he spotted that Injun if he came within a hundred yards of him," said Gilbert. "He can smell a red like a cat can smell a rat."

The tree reached, the frontiersman threw back the flat rock and brought forth the message left by the great scout. He read it aloud.

"Following Yellow Elk!" cried Jack Rasco. "I know the rascal! And it was he as stole my gal! Jess wait till I git my hand on his windpipe, thet's all! Whar's thet cave, Gilbert?"

"I don't know, but it must be somewhere up the ravine. Come on."

And away went the trio, on the hunt for Yellow Elk, p.a.w.nee Brown and poor Nellie Winthrop.

CHAPTER XVI.

ATTACKED BY A WILDCAT.

"You fiend!"

This was all p.a.w.nee Brown could say, as with a face full of bitter hatred Yellow Elk advanced and applied the torch to the dry brush which encircled his feet.

In vain the great scout endeavored to wrench himself free from the fire-stake. Yellow Elk and his followers had done their work well and he was held as in a vise.

"p.a.w.nee Brown shall burn slowly," said the Indian chief, hoping to make the scout show the white feather. "Yellow Elk will watch that the fire does not mount to his body too quickly."

"If you want to kill me why don't you put a bullet through my heart and have done with it," said the boomer as coolly as he could. The fire was now burning around his feet and ankles and the pain was increasing with every second of time.

"White man shall learn what it is to suffer," said Spotted Nose. "He killed my friend, the Little Mule."

"Your friend tried to take my life."

"Bah! say no more but burn! burn!" hissed Yellow Elk.

And with a stick he shoved the flaming brush closer in around the scout's legs.

It was a fearful moment--a moment in which p.a.w.nee Brown's life hung by a single thread. The flames were leaping up all around him. He closed his eyes and half murmured a prayer for divine aid.

Crack! bang! crack! Two pistol shots and the report of a rifle echoed throughout the cave, and as p.a.w.nee Brown opened his eyes in astonishment Spotted Nose threw up his arms and fell forward in the flames at his feet, dead! The Indian who had been with Spotted Nose also went down, mortally wounded, while Yellow Elk was. .h.i.t in the left arm.

"Down with the reds!" came in the ringing voice of Jack Rasco, and he appeared from out of a cloud of smoke, closely followed by Dan Gilbert and d.i.c.k. "p.a.w.nee! Am I in time? I hope ter Heaven I am!"

"Jack!" cried the great scout. A slash of Rasco's hunting knife and he was free. "Good for you!" and then p.a.w.nee Brown had his hands full for several minutes beating out the flames which had ignited his boot soles and the bottoms of his trousers.

"We plugged the three of 'em," said Gilbert. "I knocked thet one," and he pointed to the Indian who was breathing his last.

"I hit the Indian with the yellow plume," put in d.i.c.k, and he could not help but shudder.

"That was Yellow Elk," said Rasco. "But whar is he now?"

All the white men turned quickly, looking up and down the cave. It was useless. Yellow Elk had disappeared.

"He must not escape!" cried p.a.w.nee Brown. "I have an account to settle with him for starting that fire."