Instead, he grasped the margin of the ledge and drew himself up to his former place.
There, however, he paused with folded arms and surveyed the strange scene more leisurely than before.

He was anxious to discover the Sioux if anywhere in sight, but the fellow did not show himself.
The roar of the canyon had been in his ears so long that it seemed like silence, and it had lulled him to sleep hours before.

He was still suffering from hunger and longed for the return of his captor, for he thought he would bring food with him.
Providentially the lad had stood in this position but a short time when he looked aloft toward the sky.

At the moment of doing so he uttered an exclamation of affright and leaped back into the mouth of the cavern.
The next instant a boulder that must have weighed a ton crashed upon the ledge where he had been standing, splintered off a number of pieces, and plunged into the torrent below.
Fred did not try to make himself believe that the falling of this mass of stone was an accident.

Motoza or one of his allies had been on the watch above for the appearance of the youth, and when the boulder had been adjusted as well as possible it was tumbled over into the canyon.
Had Fred remained on the spot a few moments longer he would have been crushed like an insect under the wheel of a steam-engine.
It was a startling occurrence, and in his weakened condition made him so faint that he withdrew still further into the cavern and sat down, trembling like a leaf.