CHAPTER XXII.

THE PACT OF BLOOD. Behind the fugitives, the rattle of dropping shots had gone on for an hour so that Oregon Oliver's prophecy of the possible duration of such skirmishing bid fair to be verified. The Indians mode of warfare is to force a retrograde movement by the gradual concentration of fire, and at the moment a retreat is begun, whatever the cause--strategetic or from pure weakness or cowardice--a charge is made by the best warriors in a body, whooping and brandishing their weapons. Knowing something of how res…