WITHIN THE FORT
"Anything doing?" inquired Jim.
"I saw one Indian," I replied, "when I went down to the end of the rock
trail and I hit him with a stone."
"Struck him out the first thing," grinned Jim.
"Sure."
"Well, no stones for me," said Jim, "if I see one of those red beggars I
will give him the lead."
"How did you sleep?" I asked.
"Fine," he replied, "why not? That brush was soft and the fire kept me
comfortable."
"I'll try it myself," I said and curled up in the nest that Jim had just
vacated.
"Now don't be alarmed," said Jim, "if you hear an occasional shot. You
won't need to show up unless you hear two or three in succession. Santa
and I will defend the fort now, so you can take things easy."
"That suits me," I replied, "don't forget to take your umbrella and be
sure and don't get your feet wet."
"You needn't worry, my boy, I will take care of myself."
Then Jim crawled out of the door and disappeared in the darkness,
followed by Santa. I can not explain why, but I felt perfectly
comfortable and entirely safe and was soon fast asleep.
The next thing I knew, Jim was standing over me.
"Were you going to sleep all day?" he inquired.
"Why, it is daylight," I exclaimed, sitting up, "and it has cleared
too."
For I saw a patch of sunshine laid like a mat in front of the door of
our camp.
"It's a fine day for hunting Apaches," remarked Jim.
"Anything happened while I was asleep?" I enquired.
"All quiet along the Potomac," replied Jim. "Santa Anna had one growling
spell, but I guess it was the stomach ache. I skirmished around below
the rock but I couldn't find anything."
"You idiot," I said, "didn't you know better than that. It's a wonder
that they didn't get you."
"I guess you scared 'em so when you flung the rock at the dark brother
that they haven't dared to peep since."
"I suppose that we might as well sit down to our frugal meal," I
suggested.
It certainly was as I described it and it made me feel pretty gloomy
when I thought how short we were for food and water, especially the
latter. Just then we heard a deep growl from Santa, whom Jim had left at
the head of the trail on guard.
In a second Jim and I had sprung out on deck to find out the cause of
the disturbance. We found Santa barring the way so that Piute and Coyote
could not go down the trail.
"Good dog," said Jim, patting him on the head. "The ponies are thirsty,
I reckon, and thought that they would go for water. Lucky Santa stopped
them."
"We will have to fix it so they can't escape," I said.
This we had no great difficulty in doing. It was the most exciting
incident of the day. We found that the Apaches were on the alert, for
whenever one of us showed himself, just the lift of the head, there came
a quick shot or the unerring flight of an arrow.
"It's lucky for us," remarked Jim, "that this is a wide valley instead
of a canyon, for if they could climb up anywhere and get the drop on us
our goose would be cooked."
"Look a here," I said, when a lucky shot just grazed the top of my head,
"we can improve on this situation by making some loopholes."
"Sure," replied Jim, "that's the idea. Why didn't we think of it
before?"
After this was done we could carry on our observations safely.
"Hello, look a here, Jim," I called some time later. "There's some more
Indians coming to the rendezvous."
Jim came over and took a squint through the loophole.
"That is a jolly looking crowd coming up the valley. Must be fifty of
them and they have got on their spring paint too. Ain't they beauts?"
said Jim.
To me they looked like demons with horrid creases of red and yellow
paint on their faces that gave them a haggard ferociousness.
"We haven't had anything to say for a long time," remarked Jim, "it's
just about time that we showed them that we are taking a little interest
in these proceedings."
He brought his rifle up and laid his clinched cheek against it as he
aimed at the foremost of the pack. One Indian whirled suddenly around
and dropped, badly wounded. The rest of them disappeared in a flash.
There came a fierce volley from a hundred rifles and a white flight of
arrows from the concealed Indians. They kept it up for awhile, too, in a
burst of savage rage that sent a chill to my heart.
The rocks around and back of us were spattered with lead, but that was
the extent of the damage.
"You got a salute that time for fair, Jim," I said.
"Yes," he replied, "and I got the Indian."
"Don't take another chance like that," I begged.
"Not till the next time," he replied.
So the day wore on, with occasional flurries like the above to keep
things moving. If the day before had been stormy and rainy, this made up
for it. The sun shone with the strong directness of the higher
altitudes. All the moisture had been dried up on top of our rock.
The horses began to get restless for water. Jim moistened their tongues
as best he could, but we had to be saving of our little supply of water.
The night passed with even less of incident than the previous one. It
was evident that the Indians were perfectly satisfied with their
waiting game, as well they might. It looked a sure thing.
The next day things looked bad for us. There seemed a peculiar
sultriness in the air that was unusual in the mountains. There was a
smoky haze over everything.
"It looks like Indian summer," said Jim.
"Indeed, it ought to with that crowd down there," I said.
"That's a good one," grinned Jim, "I wonder if those guys wouldn't
appreciate the joke. Come up here, big Injun, I want to tell you
something."
But none of them accepted Jim's cordial invitation. A few of the more
cultured and learned swore at us in bad English. But I guess all
swearing is bad English.
As the day wore on I began to suffer acutely from thirst. I shall never
forget that longing for water. It seemed as if I would be willing to
sacrifice my life for a good, full, everlasting drink of the cool
mountain stream that was gurgling only a few hundred feet away. But as
far as getting to it was concerned, it might just as well have been in
York State.
"I hope that Tom and the captain don't discover us and try to rescue
us," said Jim, "for I very much fear it would be a great risk to no
purpose."
"What do you expect to do?" I asked Jim. "We can't stand this many
days."
"We will see to-night," remarked Jim, mysteriously.
I doubt if he really had any plan in mind. This was just to encourage me
with the hope of some way of escape.
"Just look at the smoke rolling over the mountains, Jim!" I exclaimed.
It was about the middle of the afternoon and we had been so busy
reconnoitering that we probably had not discovered it at first.
"It looks like a tremendous forest fire," said Jim, "and we will see it
before night."
"What are we going to do if it comes our way?" I asked. "We will be
perfectly helpless."