"A dozen--a score of times," replied the captain. "Ah! here is our friend the governor. Why, he is dressed up as if he meant to ride part of the way with us."

"Ah! captain! Well, my young Indian runner," said the governor, laughing, "are you ready for another skirmish?"

"Yes, sir, I'm ready now," said Bart promptly. "I can saddle up in five minutes."

"I shall be ready at sunset," said the captain. "My men are ready now."

"I've made up my mind to go with you," said the governor.

"You, sir?" cried Bart.

"Yes, my lad. I want to see the silver canyon and your mountain fortress. And besides, it seems to me that a brush with the Indians will do me good. I want them to have a severe lesson, for they are getting more daring in their encroachments every day. Can you make room for me?"

The captain expressed his delight, and Bart's eyes flashed as he felt that it was one more well-armed, active, fighting man; and when evening came, after an affectionate farewell, and amidst plenty of cheers from the swarthy mob of idlers, the well-mounted little party rode out along the road leading to the plains, with the lancers' accoutrements jingling, their lance-points gilded by the setting sun, and their black-and-yellow pennons fluttering in the pleasant evening breeze.

"At last," said Bart to himself, as he reined up and drew aside to see the gallant little array pa.s.s. "Oh! if we can only get one good chance at the cowardly demons! They won't hunt me now."

And in imagination he saw himself riding in the line of hors.e.m.e.n, going at full speed for a body of bloodthirsty Indians, and driving them helter-skelter like chaff before a storm.

CHAPTER FORTY ONE.

THE LANCERS' LESSONS.

With Bart for a guide, the relief party made good progress, but they were, of course, kept back a great deal by the waggons, well horsed as they were. Alone the lancer troop could have gone rapidly over the ground, but the sight of hovering knots of Apaches appearing to right and left and in their rear, told that they were well watched, and that if the baggage was left for a few hours, a descent would be certain to follow.

In fact, several attempts were made as they got farther out into the plains to lure the lancers away from their stores, but Captain Miguel was too well versed in plain-fighting to be led astray.

"No," he said, "I have been bitten once. They'd get us miles away feigning attacks and leading us on, and at last, when we made ready for a charge, they'd break up and gallop in all directions, while, when we came back, tired out and savage, the waggons would have been rifled and their guards all slain. I think we'll get our stores safe at the silver canyon fort, and then, if the Apaches will show fight, why, we shall be there."

The days glided on, with plenty of alarms, for, from being hara.s.sed by the presence of about a dozen Indians, these increased and grew till there would be nearly a hundred hovering around and constantly on the watch to cut off any stragglers from the little camp.

They never succeeded, however, for the captain was too watchful. He never attempted any charges; but when the savages grew too daring, he gave a few short sharp orders, and half a dozen of the best marksmen dismounted and made such practice with their short rifles, that pony after pony went galloping riderless over the plain.

This checked the enemy, but after a few hours they would come on again, and it seemed as if messengers were sent far and wide, for the Indians grew in numbers, till at the time when half the distance was covered, it seemed as if at least four hundred were always hovering around in bands of twenty or forty, making dashes down as if they meant to ride through the camp or cut the body of lancers in two. For they would come on yelling and uttering derisive cries till pretty close, and then wheel round like a flock of birds and gallop off again into the plain.

"I'm saving it all up for them," said Captain Miguel, laughingly, as a low murmur of impatience under so much insult ran through his men.

"Wait a bit, and they will not find us such cowards as they think."

"I should like your lancers to make one dash at them though, captain,"

said Bart one evening when, evidently growing more confident as their numbers increased, the Apaches had been more daring than usual, swooping down, riding round and round as if a ring of riderless horses were circling about the camp, for the savages hung along their horses so that only a leg and arm would be visible, while they kept up a desultory fire from beneath their horses' necks.

"Bah! let the miserable mosquitoes be," said the captain, contemptuously. "We have not much farther to go, I suppose."

"I hope to show you the mountain to-morrow," replied Bart.

"Then they can wait for their chastis.e.m.e.nt for another day or two. Come now, my excitable young friend, you think I have been rather quiet and tame with these wretches, don't you?"

Bart's face grew scarlet.

"Well, sir, yes, I do," he said, frankly.

"Well spoken," said the governor, clapping him on the shoulder.

"Yes," said Captain Miguel, "well spoken; but you are wrong, my boy. I have longed for days past to lead my men in a good dashing charge, and drive these savage animals back to their dens; but I am a soldier in command, and I have to think of my men as well as my own feelings.

These fifty men are to me worth all the Indian nations, and I cannot spare one life, no, not one drop of blood, unless it is to give these creatures such a blow as will cow them and teach them to respect a civilised people, who ask nothing of them but to be left alone. Wait a little longer, my lad; the time has not yet come."

That night strong outposts were formed, for the Indians were about in great force; but no attack was made, and at daybreak, on a lovely morning, they were once more in motion, while, to Bart's great surprise, though he swept the plain in every direction, not an Indian was to be seen.

"What does that mean, think you?" said the governor, smiling.

"An ambush," replied Bart. "They are waiting for us somewhere."

"Right," exclaimed the Captain, carefully inspecting the plain; "but there is little chance of ambush here, the ground is too open, unless they await us on the other side of that rolling range of hills. You are right though, my lad; it is to take effect later on. This is to lull us into security; they have not gone far."

A couple of hours brought them to the foot of the low ridge, when scouts were sent forward; but they signalled with their lances that the coast was clear, and the party rode on till the top was reached, and spurring a little in advance of the troop in company with the captain and the governor, Bart reined up and pointed right away over the gleaming lake to where the mountain stood up like some huge keep built in the middle of the plain.

"There is the rock fortress," he cried.

"And where is the silver canyon?" said the governor, looking eagerly over the plain.

"Running east and west, sir, quite out of sight till you are at its edge, and pa.s.sing close behind the mountain yonder."

"Forward, then," cried the captain; "we must be there to-night. Keep up well with the waggons, and--halt! Yes, I expected so; there are our friends away there in the distance. They will be down upon us before long, like so many swarms of bees."

The greatest caution was now observed, and they rode steadily on for a few miles farther, when Bart joyfully pointed out that the occupants of the rock fortress were still safe.

"How can you tell that?" said the governor, eagerly.

"By the flag, sir," said Bart. "There it is out upon the extreme right of the mountain. If the Indians had got the better of the Doctor's party, they would have torn it down."

"Or perhaps kept it up as a lure to entrap us," said the captain, smiling; "but I think you are right about that."

"What a splendid position for a city!" exclaimed the Governor, as they rode on towards where the waters of the lake gleamed brightly in the sun.

"Yes; a great town might be placed there," said the captain, thoughtfully; "but you would want some large barracks and a little army," he added with a smile, "to keep our friends there at a distance."

For, as they neared the mountain, it seemed ominously like a certainty that the savages now meant to make a tremendous onslaught upon the band, for they were steadily coming on in large numbers, as if to meet the new-comers before they could form a junction with the holders of the rock.

"I don't want to fight them if I can help it," said Captain Miguel, scanning the approaching Indians carefully as they advanced--"not until the waggons are in safety. If we do have to charge them, you drivers are all to make for the rock, so as to get under the cover of our friends' fire. That is, if it comes to a serious attack, but I do not think it will."

The watchfulness and care now exercised by their leader showed how well worthy he was of being placed in such a position, and the men, even to the governor, obeyed him without a word, though at times his orders seemed to run in opposition to their own ideas. For he seemed to be almost skirmishing from the Indians, instead of making a bold stand, and the result was that when, after a couple of hours, they came on in strength, their insolence increased with the seeming timidity of the relieving force.

"You underrated the numbers, young gentleman," said Captain Miguel at last, when the Apaches were in full force. "You said five hundred. I should say there are quite six, and as fine a body of well-mounted warriors as I have seen upon the plains."

"Well, Miguel," said the governor, "it seems to me that, unless you attack them, we shall all be swept into the lake."

"I don't think you will, sir," replied the captain, calmly; "they are only bragging now, many as they are; they do not mean to attack us yet."