"Right close by——"
Ike's sentence, was cut short by the flash and crack of a pistol fired by a man not twenty feet away.
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 shells into the breech of his rifle.
In less time than it takes to record the act, the defenders knew that the assault 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.