"Do you know the country, Bill?" asked Middleton.
"I think so," replied Breakstone. "Unless I'mmightily mistaken, and I don't think I am, this forestends in four or five miles. Then we come right out onthe genuine Texas plain, rolling straight; away forhundreds of miles. I think I'll take Phil here and rideforward and see if I'm not right. Come, Phil!"
The two galloped away straight toward the West, and,as the forest offered no difficulties, they were notcompelled to check their speed. But in less than an hourBreakstone, who was in advance, pulled his horse backsharply, and Phil did the same.
"Look, Phil!" exclaimed Breakstone, making a widesweep with his hands, while face and eyes were glowing,"See, it is Texas!"
Phil looked. None could have been more eager thanhe was. The hill seemed to drop down before themsheer, like a cliff, but beyond lay a great gray-greenwaving sea, an expanse of earth that passed under thehorizon, and that seemed to have no limit. It was treeless, and the young grass had touched the gray of winter withfresh green.
"The great plains!" exclaimed Phil. He felt an intensethrill. He had at last reached the edge of this vastregion of mystery, and to-morrow they would enter it.
"Yes, the great plains," said Bill Breakstone. "Anddown here, I think, is where our wagons will have topass." He turned to the left and followed a gentle slopethat led to the edge of the plains. Thus, by an easydescent, they left the forest, but when they turned backPhil's eye was caught by a glittering object:
"Look, Bill!" he exclaimed. "See the arrow! Whatdoes it mean?"
An arrow with a deeply feathered shaft had beenplanted deep in an oak tree. Evidently it had beenfired from a bow by some one standing on the plain, andit was equally evident that a powerful hand had drawnthe string. It stood out straight and stark as if it wouldstay there forever. Bill Breakstone rode up to it andexamined it critically.
"It's a Comanche arrow, Phil," he said, "and, between you and me, I think it means something:
"An arrow I see
Stuck in a tree,
But what it does mean
Has not yet been seen-
"Especially when it's coupled with the fact that yousaw Black Panther's face in the thicket. I may have animaginative mind, Sir Philip of the Forest, soon to beSir Philip of the Plain, but this arrow I take to be ourfirst warning. It tells us to turn back, and it may havebeen fired by Black Panther himself, late Knight of theLevee and of Strong Drink."
"Will we turn back?" asked Phil somewhat anxiously.
Bill Breakstone laughed scornfully.
"Do you think a crowd like ours would turn back fora sign?" he asked. "Why, Phil, that arrow, if it ismeant as a threat, is the very thing to draw them on. Itwould make them anxious to go ahead and meet thosewho say they must stop. If they were not that kind ofmen, they wouldn't be here."
"I suppose so," said Phil. "I, for one, would notwant to turn back."
He rode up to the tree, took the arrow by the shaft, and pulled with all his might. He was a strong youth, but he could not loosen it. Unless broken off, it was tostay there, a sign that a Comanche warning had beengiven.
"I knew you couldn't move it," said Bill Breakstone."The Indians have short bows, and you wouldn't thinkthey could get so much power with them, but they do.It's no uncommon thing for a buck at close range to sendan arrow clear through a big bull buffalo, and it takespowerful speed to do that."
They rode back, met the advancing line of wagons, and told what they had seen, to which the men themselves,as they came to the edge of the prairie, were ableto bear witness. Yet they were not greatly impressed.Those who believed that it meant a challenge gaylyaccepted it as Breakstone had predicted.
"Let the Comanches attack, if they will," they said, shaking their rifles. Even the face of the quietMiddleton kindled.
"It's a good spirit our men show," he said to thethree who were his chosen comrades, "but I knew thatthey would never turn back because of an Indian threat."
The train advanced slowly down into the plain, andthen began its march across the vast, grayish-greenexpanse. The traveling was very easy here, and they madeseven or eight miles over the rolling earth before theystopped at sunset. Phil, looking back, could still seethe dark line of the hilly country and the forest, butbefore him the prairie rolled away, more than ever, as thetwilight came, like an unknown sea.
The camp was beside a shallow stream runningbetween low banks. They built their fires of cottonwoodand stunted oaks that grew on either side, and then Philsaw the darkness suddenly fall like the fall of a greatblanket over the plains. With the night came a low, moaning sound which Bill Breakstone told him wasmerely the wind blowing a thousand miles without abreak.
Phil took his turn at guard duty the latter half of thatnight, walking about at some distance from the camp, now and then meeting his comrades on the same duty, and exchanging a word or two. It was very dark, andthe other sentinels were not in the best of humor, thinking there was little need for such a watch, and Phil byand by confined himself strictly to his own territory.
Although his eyes grew used to the darkness, it wasso heavy that they could not penetrate it far, and heextended his beat a little farther from the camp. Hethought once that he heard a light sound, as of footsteps, perhaps those of a horse, and in order to be certain, remembering an old method, he lay down and put his earto the ground. Then he was quite sure that he heard asound very much like the tread of hoofs, but in amoment or two it ceased. He rose, shaking his headdoubtfully, and advanced a little farther. He neither saw norheard anything more, and he became convinced that thefootsteps had been those of some wild animal. Perhapsa lone buffalo, an outlaw from the herd, had beenwandering about, and had turned away when the human odormet his nostrils.
He returned toward the camp, and something coldpassed his face. There was a slight whistling sounddirectly in his ear, and he sprang to one side, as if hehad narrowly missed the fangs of a rattlesnake. Heheard almost in the same instant a slight, thuddingsound directly in front of him, and he knew instinctivelywhat had made it. He ran forward, and there was anarrow sticking half its length in the ground. Theimpulse of caution succeeded that of curiosity. RememberingBill Breakstone's teachings, he threw himself flatupon the ground, letting his figure blend with thedarkness, and lay there, perfectly still. But no other arrowcame. Nothing stirred. He could not make out amongthe shadows anything that resembled a human figure, although his eyes were good and were now trained to thework of a sentinel. Once when he put his ear to theearth he thought he heard the faint beat of retreatinghoofs, but the sound was so brief and so far away that hewas not sure.
Phil felt shivers, more after he lay down than whenthe arrow passed his cheek. It was the first time that adeadly weapon or missile had passed so close to him, fired perhaps with the intent of slaying him, and no boycould pass through such an experience without quiversand an icy feeling along the spine.
But when he lay still awhile and could not detect thepresence of any enemy, he rose and examined the arrowagain. There was enough light for him to see that thefeathered shaft was exactly like that of the arrow theyhad found in the tree.
He pulled the weapon out of the ground and examinedit with care. It had a triangular head of iron, withextremely sharp edges, and he shuddered again. If ithad struck him, it would have gone through him as BillBreakstone said the Comanche arrows sometimes wententirely through the body of a buffalo.
He took the arrow at once to the camp, and showed itto the men who were on guard there, telling how thisfeathered messenger-and he could not doubt that it wasa messenger-had come. Woodfall and Middleton wereawakened, and both looked serious. It could not be anyplay of fancy on the part of an imaginative boy. Herewas the arrow to speak for itself.
"It must have been the deed of a daring Comanche,"said Middleton with conviction. "Perhaps he did notintend to kill Phil, and I am sure that this arrow, likethe first, was intended as a threat."
"Then it's wasted, just as others will be," saidWoodfall. "My men do not fear Comanches."
"I