"I do not know, signora; but I should think so. The Indians caught them; I heard a scream," and the man shuddered. "Santa Virgine"—and he crossed himself piously—"what an escape! I will burn twenty pounds of candles upon your altar."
"How was it that you were surprised, Lopez?" Charley asked. "You were so particularly ordered to keep a good lookout."
"Well, Signor Charles, I was keeping a good lookout, and it is lucky that I was. I was further away than I ought to have been—I know that, for the signor told me not to go far; but I knew that the rise that I took them to was the highest in that direction, and that I could see for miles away into the Indian country. So I got out there, and Pedro and Gomez had got the sheep and cattle all well together, and there was no fear of them straying, for the grass there is very good. So the men lay down for their siesta, and I was standing by my horse looking over the campo. Some of the beasts seemed uneasy, and I thought that there must be a lion somewhere about. So I got on my horse, and just as I did so I heard a noise; and looking behind, where I had never dreamed of them, I saw a lot of Indians coming up at full gallop from the hollow. The cattle went off at the same instant; and I gave a shout to the men, and stuck my spurs into Carlos. It was a near touch of it, and they gave me a hard chase for the first mile; but my horse was fresher than theirs, and they gave it up."
"How many Indians were there?" Charley asked.
"I don't know, Signor Charles. It was only those in front that I caught sight of, and I never looked round after I started. Some of them had firearms, for eight or ten of them fired after me as I made off, and the arrow, fell all round me."
"What do you think, girls, about the number?"
The girls were silent, and then Ethel said: "They were all in a lump, Charley. One could not see them separately."
"The lump seemed to be about the size that our cattle do when they are close together at the same distance. Don't you think so, Ethel?" Maud said.
"Yes," Ethel thought that they were.
"Then there must be from a hundred to a hundred and fifty of them,"
Charley said.