"Yes," answered Holt; "and we must be ready for them, when they get here. They are camped down near the Devil's Slide; and I calculate it will take them about half an hour yet to get here."
"An' the skunks are a-calculatin' on findin' th' camp unguarded?" and Ham's eyes began to twinkle brightly.
"Yes, I heard Pedro tell the other fellow that he felt quite sure none of us would be back for two hours or more; but, to make things safe, Brokennose, as Thure calls him, said he'd climb the tree and knock the head off anyone that tried to come through the narrow opening into Crooked Arm Gulch. I reckon Rex got there just at the right moment to spoil that little game."
"I certainly did," and Rex smiled grimly. "A minute later, and he would have got me, instead of my getting him. But, we must be getting ready for the return of Pedro," and his eyes glanced anxiously down the canyon.
"Say," and Ham turned to Conroyal, "why can't we give them th' same kind of a s'prise they was a-calculatin' on givin' us? They ain't expectin' tew find us here, an' will come a rushin' up unsuspicious-like, an', if we hide, we can give 'em a mighty warm reception a-fore they know what's happenin'."
"Bully! Where'll we hide?" and Mr. Conroyal glanced eagerly around. "There, those rocks will be just the place," and he pointed up the canyon to where a row of big rocks stood up, almost like a rampart, something like a hundred feet from the Big Tree. "Now we must leave the camp looking just as it was when Pedro left it. Here, somebody, quick, we'll tie the body of Ugger up in the blanket, and leave it where we found Frank. That will sure fool them," and he hurried to where the corpse of Ugger lay; and, in a few minutes, the body was tightly bound up in a blanket and laid down on the exact spot where Ham had found Holt.
"All got plenty of powder and lead?" and Mr. Conroyal glanced swiftly from man to man.
All answered in the affirmative.
"Then get behind the rocks," and, with a final look around the camp to see that every suspicious sign had been removed, Mr. Conroyal led his little company to the rocky rampart to await the coming of Pedro and the band of robbers; and soon all had vanished from the sight of anyone coming up the canyon.
In front of them and the Big Tree there was a space some three hundred feet wide, clear of trees or underbrush or rocks large enough to shield a man.