“Well, I wouldn’t like to say there was,” answered Mr. Brill, slowly; “and yet I’m not so foolish as to say there isn’t. Those bucks are hungry, and a hungry Indian will do more than one that has had a good meal. Then, too, they know we’ve got lots of things aboard here that they’d like. Of course they may not get up spunk enough to attack us, and then, again, they may.”
“Then you think we’d better keep close around here?” asked Bob, pausing with a pan in his hand. He had been in the act of getting a meal when Ned and Harvey Brill returned.
“I think so—yes,” replied the miner. “And, I think we had better stand on guard, too—night and day. It won’t do to take chances. Jim, you and I’ll take turns watching for these beggars while the boys get the airship in shape to run. The sooner we leave these diggings the better I’ll like it. I’ll take first watch,” and, seeing that his rifle was fully loaded, the Westerner stalked off a little way in the woods to take up his position on a slight eminence that gave him a good view of the surrounding country.
[CHAPTER XX]
A NIGHT ATTACK
“Well, this is our first bit of bad luck,” remarked Ned, when the prospector had gone off to do guard duty. “But I suppose we couldn’t expect to have everything too easy.”
“No, that’s right,” agreed Jerry. “Well, now it’s up to us to get busy and make these repairs as soon as we can. If the Indians want to make trouble they will, and the best thing for us to do is to get out of here.”
“I don’t call it all bad luck,” observed Bob, as he started back to the galley, whence came appetizing smells.
“What part isn’t?” asked Ned.