"But what if the danger of all is increased by my staying here?"
"Then I should say go, but let us go down to the spring and think it all over. I am sure we can tell Ike and Wah Shin about this; they are both plucky and faithful."
"As you say," was Ulna"s reply, and he cast a quick glance about the horizon before descending from the rock on which they had been standing.
"What do you see?" asked Sam, looking eagerly in the direction of Ulna"s fixed eyes.
"Apaches!" was the whispered reply.
"Where?"
"Off to the south."
Looking in the direction pointed out by Ulna, Sam saw, low down on the edge of the horizon, a number of pigmy figures that but for their movements might have pa.s.sed for bunches of cactus.
"Are they coming this way?" asked Sam, unconsciously tightening his grip on his rifle, while his heart beat faster.
"I cannot tell that, but if they should come they must not find us here."
Ulna sprang down the rocks, followed by Sam, and they found Ike and Wah Shin about to start a fire.
"You must make no fire to-night," said Sam.
"What foh?" asked Ike, who had a strong prejudice in favor of hot food.
"Because we are afraid there are Indians near by."
"Injuns!" exclaimed Ike, and he pressed his hands to the top of his head, as if to keep down his rising scalp.
"Yes; we must fill our canteens with water and move from here at once."
"But whar to, Mistah Sam?"
"To the shelter of some rocks not far from the head of this ravine. Let the fire go, Wah Shin, we can get along without it to-night."
"Me no likee bad Injun; me no kalee fo" fi"," said Wah Shin, as he kicked over the pile of fuel, and hurriedly began to fill the four canteens.
The sun had set and the chilling shadows were creeping up from the canons, in which they seemed to have their home during the day, when Sam and Ulna led the way into the broad plateau of the upper world.
The ma.s.s of rocks in which they sought shelter was close to the head of the rift.
The increasing darkness favored their reaching these rocks without being seen by any one not near by.
This was an admirable hiding place, and in the event of trouble it had every advantage for observation and defense.
In the midst of these rocks they ate their supper, and Sam detailed the guards for the night.
His greatest fear was that the dog might reveal, by growling, their hiding place to any who might come near. To guard against this as much as possible, he fastened a rope muzzle about the dog"s head and told Ike to watch him.
Some three hours of darkness had pa.s.sed when Ike called out:
"See har, Mistah Sam, this yar dog scents somethin" an" I can"t hold him to save my life."
CHAPTER XXV.-FROM SAFETY INTO DANGER.
It did not need the low growling of the dog to convince our young friends that they were in the midst of danger.
Along the trail leading up from the ravine, they could hear low, gutteral voices, and they did not need to be told that the Apaches, whom they had seen as the sun was setting, had come to the spring, for the fall of moccasined feet could be heard dying out in that direction.
"The Apaches!" whispered Sam, as he grasped Ulna"s arm with one hand, and clutched his rifle more tightly with the other.
"Yes," was the reply.
"Do you think they will discover us?"
"They cannot help doing so."
"What will be their next move after finding we are near by?"
"They will trail us down."
"To these rocks?"
"Yes."
"And then?"
"And then if they find me they will see that the rising sun looks on one less Ute in the world," was Ulna"s reply, given with his habitual calmness.
"But we will fight," said Sam, stoutly. "And if it comes to dying, we will die together, and the enemy will make nothing by it."
"Ha! dey"s startin" a fiah down dar by the spring," said Ike, who had been peering through the darkness in the direction the Apaches had taken.
This was true. A column of luminous smoke, followed by a fountain of sparks and flame, shot into the calm night air near the spring.
The Indians were using the fuel Ike and Wah Shin had gathered, and by the light of the dancing flames their slender, half-naked figures could be seen.
Sam counted thirteen warriors. All appeared to be well armed with rifles, and the red paint on their faces told that they were out on no mission of peace.
"I will go out and try to learn their purpose," said Ulna, as he slung his rifle on his back, and tightened his belt.
"But they may catch you," said Sam.
"I will see that they don"t."