“Do you see that we are protected by the ‘bad medicine’ machines? If you were to do us harm now, these machines would utterly destroy you and every one of your party. The moment you fired at us these machines would be like so many demons let loose, and as they are not made of flesh and blood, they could not be harmed. Not one of your party could escape them.”
The light of the fire showed that the Indians looked at each other with mingled incredulity and fear.
“Wow!” muttered Rattleton. “Is this Browning I hear? How did you happen to think of such a bluff?”
“Have to think in a case like this,” returned the big fellow, guardedly. “I think only when it is absolutely necessary. This is one of those occasions.”
The Indians got together and held a consultation.
“Can’t we make a run for it now?” asked Diamond, eagerly.
“We can,” nodded Bruce, “but we won’t run far. They’d be able to drop us before we could get out of the light of the fire.”
“What can we do?”
“Why, we’ll have to——”
Browning was interrupted by a clatter of hoofs, which caused him to turn toward the East. The Indians heard the sound, and they turned also.