“Just asleep. We been thinkin’ so much about those hiding places that I’m dreaming all this, but listen, if it was real those fellows would never have trailed right over us like that—never—why, I could see right through them—it’s a dream I tell you—”
“Come along, I’ll show you if it’s a dream,” Lang shouted. “They’ll get away if we don’t hustle.” He dashed off after the last Indian who had disappeared from sight.
Mills followed reluctantly at a slower pace, while the Flying Buddies cautiously brought up the rear. As he went on they could hear him muttering to himself that he was dreaming, that it wasn’t real, and Lang was a nut.
“It does seem queer,” Bob remarked thoughtfully.
“Shall I give you a pinch so you’ll be sure you are awake?” Jim asked soberly.
“Yes, go ahead,” Caldwell invited. His step-brother started to comply but he no sooner got a bit of the fleshy part of his arm between his fingers than Bob drew away. “I’m convinced. Come on, hurry up, it isn’t as light as it was!”
The pellets the boys had swallowed some hours earlier had refreshed them amazingly so they forgot that they had had little food, rest or water, as they ran as hard as they could go along the passage, which presented no difficulties to progress. They had raced about five minutes before they overtook Lang and Mills, and some distance ahead they could see the backs of the Indians marching forward with dignified tread. Nearly a quarter of an hour the white men followed the dark ones through the opening in the dense forest until at last Lang, who was leading, paused and raised his hand. Mills drew close to his partner, but the Flying Buddies remained at a respectful distance. They were on higher ground and could see quite easily what was happening.
The place beyond where the Buddies were standing was like a deep gully whose sides rose steeply, like a wall. Thick vines grew about twenty feet from the bottom and these were woven across the top in an impenetrable mass through which neither rain nor sunshine could pass. The boxes and baskets were placed on the ground in a circle and the men stood behind them, each armed with long and short spears. It looked as if the women were moving about preparing a meal, but suddenly there came a fierce braying of dogs, the thunder of galloping hoofs, hundreds of them, and the deafening clatter of steel. A moment later a huge black brute with powerful hungry jaws leaped in from behind the rocks, and almost instantly a horse and rider raced furiously in after him.
“Great Guns, Bob, he’s in armor,” Jim whispered.
“Bronc and all,” Caldwell added in amazement. It reminded the boys of some historical moving picture in which armored knights and horses suddenly leaped to life and action. For a breathless instant they stood too astonished to speak.