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"Wal, y'u fellars go, an' I'll watch heah," returned Colter

"Not ly

Colter beca a moment, he finally turned to Ellen "Y'u wait heah till I come back An' if I don't coh the s to the cabins Wait till aboot dark" With that he possessed himself of one of the extra rifles and belts and silently joined his coether they noiselessly stole into the brush

Ellen had no other thought than to comply with Colter's wishes There was her wounded uncle who had been left unattended, and she was anxious to get back to him Besides, if she had wanted to run off froet lost and die of starvation Her lot must be cast with the Jorth faction until the end That did not seem far away

Her strained attention and suspense made the moments fly By and by several shots pealed out far across the side canyon on her right, and they were answered by reports sounding closer to her The fight was on again But these shots were not repeated The flies buzzed, the hot sun beat down and sloped to the west, the soft, warm breeze stirred the aspens, the ravens croaked, the red squirrels and blue jays chattered

Suddenly a quick, short, yelp electrified Ellen, brought her upright with sharp, listening rigidity Surely it was not a wolf and hardly could it be a coyote Again she heard it The yelp of a sheep dog! She had heard that' often enough to know And she rose to change her position so she could command a view of the rocky bluff above Presently she espied what really appeared to be a big timber wolf But another yelp satisfied her that it really was a dog She watched hiet down over the bluff He ran to and fro, and then out of sight In a few moments his yelp sounded from lower down, at the base of the bluff, and it was now the cry of an intelligent dog that was trying to call so was near where Colter had said Bill Isbel had plunged over the declivity Would the dog yelp that way if the ht not

No one caot on Ellen's nerves It was a call for help And finally she surrendered to it Since her natural terror when Colter's horse was shot froed away, she had not recovered from fear of the Isbels But calm consideration now convinced her that she could hardly be in a worse plight in their hands than if she re