It has never been Indian nature to
face unprotected the aim Of the white
men, and those dark figures, which
only a moment before thronged the
narrow gorge, leaping crazily in the
riot of apparent victory, suddenly
melted from sight, slinking down into
leafy coverts beside the stream or into
holes among the rocks, like so many
vanishing prairie dogs. Now and thea
fiinewy brown arm might inoauttou*
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BOB HAMPTON
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ly project across the gleaming surface
of a rock, or a mop of coarse, black
hair appear above the edge cf a gully,
either incident resulting in a quick
interchange of fire. That was all yet
the experienced frontiersmen knew
that eyes as keen as those of any wild
animal of the jungle were watching
murderously their slightest movement.
Wyman, now reclining in agony
against the base of the overhanging
cliff, directed the movements of his
little command calmly and with sober
military judgment. Little by little, un
der protection of the rifles of the three
civilians, the uninjured infantrymen
crept cautiously about, rolling loosened
bowlders forward into position, until
they finally succeeded in thus erecting
a rude barricade between them and the
enemy. The wounded who could be
reached were laboriously drawn back
within this improvised shelter, and
when the black shadows of the night
finally shut down, all remaining alive
were once more clustered together,
the injured lying moaning and ghastly
beneath the overhanging shelf of rock,
and the girl, who possessed all the pa
tient stoicism of frontier training, rest
ing in silence, her widely opened eyes
on those far-off stars peeping above
the brink of the chasm, her head pil
lowed on old Gillis' knee.
