With a "spat" the bullet splintered against the rocks a few feet above Sam's head.

The time for immediate action had come.

"Now, boys!" shouted Sam, in ringing tones.

By the flash of his own rifle he saw the forms of two men on the trail outside the wall he had thrown up.

With the strength of desperation, Ike and Wah Shin rose to their feet and began hurling stones into the path, while Sam fired as rapidly as he could throw sh.e.l.ls into the breech of his rifle.

In less time than it takes to record the act, the defenders knew that the a.s.sault had been a failure.

Oaths, groans and the crashing of bodies, two score feet below, told that Badger and Shirley did not retreat of their own volition, but in accordance with the one law which they could not violate, viz.: gravitation.

Cries for help went up from the base of the rock, and the two men who had been indulging in harmless rifle practice hastened to the relief of their less fortunate companions.

"h.e.l.lo, boys, any one hurt?" asked one.

"Hurt!" groaned Badger. "They've done for me."

"Oh, I guess not. Let us get a light and see how things is," said the landlord.

"Don't make a light," protested Shirley.

"Why not?"

"Because they'll fire at it."

"No, but go up and clean them fellows out. I could die happy if I knowed you'd cleaned 'em out," gasped Badger.

"Wa'al," said the landlord, "you can't expect me to go up there and try to do anything after the fist you two have made of it. I don't mind anything in reason, but that's axin' a leetle too much."

"Something must be done, and at once," said Frank Shirley.

"What do you want done?" asked the landlord, already heartily sick of the undertaking.

"I am hurt as well as Badger."

"Sorry for that."

"And you two must help us on our horses and get us away from here."

"Of course we'll stick by you," said the landlord. "But atween you and me and the rock, Mr. Shirley, I kinder think, perhaps, it mout be better, if so be you steered cl'ar of Hurley's Gulch for awhile--"

The man stopped suddenly, his attention being attracted by the barking of a dog in the distance.

CHAPTER x.x.xVI.-TO THE RESCUE.

Badger and Shirley were carried from under the rock, but when it came to lifting them on the horses it was found that they were too much injured to ride.

"Thar ain't no use in my tryin' it," groaned Badger. "I can't sit in the saddle."

"Then what's to be did?" asked the landlord.

"Hide me away, and when daylight comes send some of the boys after me with a stretcher."

"That'd never do," protested the landlord.

"Why not?"

"Coz, if you was to git back to the Gulch at this time all the chances is they'd make you stretch hemp. Fact is, ole feller, you and Shirley here has played your last keerds, and I'm downright sorry to say the game has gone agin you in a most surprisin' bad way."

"Don't leave me!" whined Shirley. "Take care of me and I'll pay you your own price."

"Oh, that's all right," said the landlord, who, with his companion, had placed the two men side by side on their saddle blankets and left with them two canteens. "But the barkin' of that dog comes nearer and nearer, and I don't like it. Keep a stiff upper lip and I'll send out and see how you are after sun-up."

With this promise the landlord and his companion, with an eye single to their own safety, mounted their horses and rode away.

The barking of the dog, coming from the west, was also heard by Sam and his friends.

"I tink dlat no dogee. Dlat a wolf," said Wah Shin.

"Wolf!" repeated Ike with fine scorn. "That's no wolf. Heah him! Jist lissen, Mistah Sam! Ain't dat music, an' can't yeh make it out?"

"I hear it, Ike," said Sam, "and the animal is evidently running fast and coming this way."

"It's Maj! It's deah ole Maj!" shouted Ike, and in his excitement he dashed against the wall, and with a roar like Niagara the rocks went thundering down the trail.

Sam heard the two hors.e.m.e.n galloping away, but as he could not tell whether they were retreating or going after reinforcements he determined not to abate his vigilance so long as there was a sign of danger.

Again he heard something clambering up the rocks, and he was on the point of firing, when a short, joyous bark rang out, and the next instant Maj was in their midst.

The faithful creature was nearly exhausted by his long run, for he had escaped from the Apaches, but he had strength enough left to show his joy at the meeting.

He leaped at Sam, and after licking his face and hands he turned and, with commendable impartiality, bestowed the same attention on the others.

Ike actually cried for joy, and he made an effort to take the dog in his arms, but when the first greetings were over Maj, half dead with hunger and thirst, discovered that there was water near by, and without any thought of the propriety of his conduct he plunged in and lapped till his parched skin was full.

"Oh, if Ulna was only heah now," cried Ike, "we'd be all togedder agin an' as happy as a-as a darkey in ripe watah millyon time!"

Sam was confident that Ulna had reached Hurley's Gulch, and this thought gave him so much comfort that he did not wonder why his friend had not come to his relief, for he well knew that the Indian youth would do everything that lay in his power, and he was right in this surmise.

The coming of Ulna had not only saved the lives of two men, but it had also caused a revolution in the minds of a majority of the people living at Hurley's Gulch.

To be sure, there were some who did not believe the Indian youth, and who were satisfied in their own minds that Mr. Willett and Hank Tims should be hanged, and that they would be, sooner or later; but these fellows found themselves in the minority and only whispered their belief.