Just then he ran plump against an Apache, whom he did not suspect was so near him.
The redskin uttered a grunt of anger, no doubt suspecting that it was one of his own friends.
As quick as lightning the Irishman drew back and struck a blow that stretched the warrior senseless.
“I’ll tache ye to be grunting around here when a gintleman runs again ye. Ye ought to be ashamed of yourself.”
Mickey had already strapped his rifle to his back, and, groping about, he felt the end of the lasso dangling in front of his face. The same instant he grasped it and began the ascent.
[Chapter X.]
“Here We are Again!”
Fred Munson, having been deceived once by the Apache climbing up the rope, was not to be caught again in the same way. When he became certain that a second person was coming up, he grasped his pistol again, and held himself in readiness to “repel boarders,” the very instant they appeared.