“To see what chance there is of our finding a safer refuge than this,” replied the scout master. “Somehow, I seem to have a notion that there’s a sort of crevice in the canyon wall close by. If it turns out that way and it’s big enough for us to crawl in, why, we’ll be better fixed to stand that crowd off.”
“Good luck to you!” Jimmy called after him.
“Don’t watch what I’m doing, but keep guard in front!” were the last words Ned sent back over his shoulder.
A minute later and Jack announced that he believed there was some one moving up amidst some scraggy bushes growing in a spot where earth had fallen down into the rocky cut.
“I’ve got half a mind to send a shot up there and rout him out,” he declared.
“Cut her loose then,” Jimmy told him.
“If it doesn’t do anything else,” Harry observed, “you’ll publish plain warning of our intention to fight back and give as good as we take. When they hear the crack of a rifle, perhaps, they’ll make up their minds they don’t want to bother us as much as they thought they did in the start.”
So Jack pressed the trigger of his weapon, which promptly went off with a roar, owing to the fact that at the time he was crouching in a confined space under the shelf of rock.
“Look at that, would you?” cried Jimmy.
A man had jumped into momentary view, in the midst of the leafless bushes, and making a wild spring, vanished back of a neighboring spur of rock.