“We’ve got to move, an’ move quick, too!” he announced. “There’s a crowd o’ thirty Injuns over thar,”—he pointed with his hand. “They are goin’ to attack us as soon as the sun goes down.”
“But where shall we move to?” questioned Rodney.
“I war thinkin’ o’ thet cave ye spoke about, Hempser,” went on Barringford, turning to one of the other old hunters. “You said it war nigh here.”
“It’s half a mile beyond the cliff,” was Hempser’s answer. “I don’t know the way very good, but I think I can find it.”
“Then thet is where we’ll go, an’ to onct,” decided Sam Barringford.
Not a minute was lost in breaking camp, and in a close body the pack-train set out, past the cliff and then through a valley of heavy grass and bushes. The men carried their guns ready for use, and screened Mrs. Dobson and the children as much as possible.
“Oh dear! I’d rather be dead than be so worried,” sighed the woman. “I am that nervous I am ready to drop!”
At the end of the short valley was another rise of rocks, among which was located the cave. They had just gained the first of the rocks when a hideous war-whoop sounded out on the afternoon air.
“They have discovered us!” cried Rodney, and he was right. At the far end of the valley appeared fully a score of Indians, a few on horseback and the others on foot.
The Indians had been surprised, thinking the whites were still on the trail. But they soon recovered, and came riding and running towards our friends, yelling at the top of their lungs and flourishing their tomahawks. A moment later they sent a volley of arrows and several rifle shots, for some carried one kind of weapon and some the other.