The Silver Canyon | Page 6

make that out, Master Bart."

"You, Joses!" exclaimed Bart, whose heart seemed to give a bound of
delight.
"Yes, sir; I thought I'd get up and watch for a bit; and just as I looked
round before coming to you, that rock took my fancy."
"Yes, it does look quaint and strange," said Bart; "I had been watching
it."
"Yes, but why do it look quaint and strange?" said Joses in a low, quiet
whisper, speaking as if a dozen savages were at his elbow.
"Because we can see it against the sky," replied Bart, who felt half
amused at the importance placed by his companion upon such a trifle.
"And why can you see it against the sky?" said Joses again. "Strikes me
there's a fire over yonder."
Bart was about to exclaim, "What nonsense!" but he recalled the times
when out hunting up stray cattle Joses had displayed a perception that
had seemed almost marvellous, and so he held his tongue.
"I'll take a turn out yonder, my lad," he said quietly; "I won't be very
long."
"Shall I wake up the Doctor?"
"No, not yet. Let him get a good rest," replied Joses. "Perhaps it's
nothing to mind; but coming out here we must be always ready to find
danger, and danger must be ready to find us on the look-out."
"I'll go with you," said Bart eagerly.
"No, that won't do," said the rough fellow sturdily. "You've got to keep
watch like they tell me the sailors do out at sea. Who's to take care of
the camp if you go away?"
"I'll stay then," said Bart, with a sigh of dissatisfaction, and the next
minute he was alone. For Joses had thrown down his blanket, and laid

his rifle upon it carefully, while over the lock he had placed his broad
Spanish hat to keep off the moisture of the night air. Then he had gone
silently off at a trot over the short and scrubby growth near at hand.
One moment he was near; the next he had grown as it were misty in the
darkness, and disappeared, leaving Bart, fretting at the inaction, and
thinking that the task of doing duty in watching as sentry was the
hardest he had been called upon to perform.
Meanwhile the rough cattle driver and plainsman had continued his trot
till the broken nature of the ground compelled him to proceed
cautiously, threading his way in and out amongst the masses of rock,
and forcing him to make a considerable detour before he passed the
ridge of stones.
His first act was to drop down on hands and knees; his next to lie flat,
and drag himself slowly forward a couple of hundred yards, and then
stop.
It was quite time that he had, for on either hand, as well as in front, lay
groups of Indians, while just beyond he could distinguish the horses
calmly cropping the grass and other herbage near. So still was it, and
so closely had he approached, that every mouthful seized by the horses
sounded quite plainly upon his ear, while more than once came the
mutterings of some heavy sleeper, with an occasional hasty movement
on the part of some one who was restless.
Joses had found out all he wanted, and the next thing was to get back
and give the alarm. But as is often the case in such matters, it was
easier to come than to return. It had to be done though, for the position
of those in the little camp was one full of peril, and turning softly, he
had begun his retrograde movement, when a figure he had not seen
suddenly uttered an impatient "ugh!" and started to his feet.
Joses' hand went to his belt and grasped his knife, but that was all. It
was not the time for taking to headlong flight, an act which would have
brought the whole band whooping and yelling at his heels.

Fortunately for the spy in the Indian camp, the night was darker now, a
thin veil of cloud having swept over the stars, otherwise the fate of Dr
Lascelles' expedition would have been sealed. As it was, the Indian
kicked the form beside him heavily with his moccasined foot, and then
walked slowly away in the direction of the horses.
Some men would have continued their retreat at once, perhaps
hurriedly, but Joses was too old a campaigner for such an act. As he
lay there, with his face buried deeply in the short herbage, he thought
to himself that most probably the waking up of the Indian who had just
gone, the kick, and the striding away, would have aroused some of the
others, and in this belief he lay perfectly still for quite ten minutes.
Then