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 alt.i.tudes. 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 pa.s.sed 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."

CHAPTER VII

THE CAPTAIN'S RECORD

Captain Graves was a methodical man, and kept a minute record in the form of a diary of everything that occurred from day to day.

There were volumes in his cabin on the plateau that related the adventures and vicissitudes of his life from the time of the Mexican war down. They were wonderfully interesting.

Here is the account of his trip with Tom and likewise the opinion that he had formed of us three boys.

"It has been a real pleasure for me to have the three boys, Jim, Jo and Tom, with me. One sometimes grows tired of being always alone, even when surrounded by all the beauties of nature and even one's books fail to interest at times.

"So it has meant a good deal to me to have the boys as my companions for the past months, to see them through their various adventures and to instruct them in the few things that I know well, such as woodcraft and mountaineering.

"I have had Tom with me of late, because he seems somewhat isolated from the other two boys by his nature, and though no younger than Jo he is smaller and this makes me regard him more carefully.

"He is an exceedingly bright lad, though cursed with a rather sharp tongue. The other two, like to stir him up, and since his return from the east they make life interesting for him by joking him about being a tenderfoot.

"Jo is an interesting boy, and though he is fond of books, I predict that he will be a soldier. He is obedient to orders, and will gain self-reliance as he goes along. Physically, he is quick, and has great endurance.

"Jim is the oldest and the leader. He has in him the making of an ideal scout. He is resourceful, cool headed and has great audacity, which will be tempered by experience as he goes along. Jim has also uncommon physical strength, superior to that of most men.

"The West is fine training ground for these three, and it will make men of them. Sometime they may be of real service to their country and if I can teach them anything from my experience I will consider it a privilege.

"Now, I must chronicle something of Tom's and my hunting trip and the subsequent adventures that befell us.

"Jo and Jim took their cayuses and went down the canyon, where we had made camp, to the plains, looking for antelope, while Tom and I went back in the mountains to see if we could not locate some mountain sheep.

"I remembered hunting through this region in the old days, some years after the Mexican War, and at that time it was a splendid section for big game, but now I did not expect to find a great deal, for the Apaches were hunting this region continually.

"We worked our way slowly back into the range, but saw no game until near the middle of the afternoon when Tom discovered three goats high up on a cliff. Tom's eyes are remarkably keen. In this he excels his two brothers, and mine are beginning to show the effect of the years.

"The goats saw us coming and jumped up the side of that apparently precipitous rock, nimble as fleas. I knew perfectly well how they would make tracks, so we took a wide detour and came into a high valley on the other side.

"We could just make out two white specks among some rocks at the top of the valley and we approached them under cover, but they were wary and I was finally forced to risk a chance shot.

"Two of them had disappeared over the ridge of the valley to the west, but the old Billie stood for a moment poised on a rock looking our way.

He was slantways to me. Without dismounting I took aim and fired.

"To my surprise he slid from that rock in a hurry. Tom was jubilant and I was not displeased, for it was one of the prettiest shots that it has been my good fortune to make.

"The goat was a very good specimen and as the boys cannot take him along with them on their trip, I shall have his curly horned head in my cabin on the wall, facing the elk's head.