Little Purdick was in the midst of these ominous cogitations when he saw a red flash down among the trees in the gulch bottom to the left, something smacked like a pair of clapped hands a few feet over his head, and on the heels of that came the rattling echoes of a rifle shot. Without a moment’s hesitation, he raised his rifle, aimed it at the spot where he had seen the flash, and fired. At the double crack of the guns, distant and near, Dick and Larry came running.
“What was it, Purdy?” Dick demanded.
“Nothing much. Somebody down there took a crack at me, and I handed it back.”
“Did you hit him?” Larry wanted to know.
“I couldn’t tell, of course. I fired at the place where I saw the flash. I thought it wouldn’t do any harm to let them know that we’re on the job. Stand back a little. They may shoot again.”
They waited in silence for a time, but there were no more shots. After a time a reddish glow appearing among the trees far down the gulch told them that the raiders’ supper camp-fire had been lighted.
“I guess that ends it for a while, anyway,” Larry commented. “They’ll hardly try to rush us in the dark.”
“That may be,” Dick allowed. “Just the same there mustn’t be any more cat-napping on sentry post for us. They mean business. They’ve spent a whole summer chasing us all over the lot, and they’re not going to let go now, with the big prize fairly in sight.”
After supper, which was eaten at the mouth of the cave where they could keep watch, they made their dispositions for the night. There was a bed of dry wash sand back in the cavern, and they shovelled enough of this out to the entrance corridor to pad the bare rock floor for a makeshift bed. Purdick took the first watch, and when he called Dick a little before midnight, there was nothing to report. Dick, the easy-going, comfort-loving member of the trio, found it pretty hard work keeping awake, with no fire and not much chance to stir around, but he managed to stick it out until three o’clock, when he roused Larry.
“Nothing doing,” he said in low tones so as not to waken Purdick. “I could see the glow of their fire a little when I first came on, but that’s gone down now. I don’t believe we’re going to hear anything more from them before daylight.”