Finally the sailor paused and turned.
“There, mates,” he said, stretching out his hand, “barely half a mile away lies the Enchanted Valley. I have a tickling fancy that we have reached it ahead of that delectable crew we sought to avoid.”
Even as he said this, Pete Curry uttered an exclamation and pointed toward the mouth of a ragged ravine or fissure, from which at this moment several horsemen suddenly debouched. They were followed closely by a band of men on foot.
“That’s the whole bunch!” exclaimed Curry. “And they’re coming as fast as they can chase theirselves. They are heading to cut us off.”
“That’s right!” burst from Dick. “We’ve got to make a dash for it. Lead the way, Wiley, and be sure you make no mistake.”
A hot dash it was for the fissure that led into the Enchanted Valley. The enemy, yelling like a lot of savages, did their best to cut the party off. Seeing they would fail at this, they opened fire, and a few bullets sang dangerously near the fugitives.
“Oh, bilge-water and brine!” muttered the sailor. “There’ll certainly be doings when we attempt to scurry down that crack into the valley! It’s going to be a very disagreeable piece of business for us.”
Nearer and nearer they came to the fissure for which they were heading. Straight toward the beginning of it they raced, Wiley telling Dick it would be necessary for several of them to halt there and try to stand off the enemy while the rest of the party descended. But as they reached the beginning of the fissure, from behind some bowlders two young men opened fire with repeating rifles on the pursuers. In a moment the hail of bullets sent into the ranks of the enemy threw them into confusion. A horse dropped in its tracks, and another, being wounded, began bucking and kicking. One man was hit in the shoulder.
This unexpected occurrence threw the pursuers into consternation, so that they wheeled immediately and sought to get beyond rifle range.
“Avast there, my hearties!” cried Wiley, as he caught sight of the youths who knelt behind the bowlders. “Permit me to lay alongside and join you in the merry carnage.”