“Anything the matter, sir?” said John Manning, coming forward, followed hastily by Berry.
“Matter, man; yes. I have kept watch by sleeping all night.”
“Well, sir, I don’t wonder,” said the man. “I have too, for you didn’t call me to go on duty.”
“Oh, shame!” exclaimed the colonel. “And at a time like this!”
“I don’t see no shame in it, sir,” growled John Manning bluntly. “You wanted sleep like the rest of us, and you couldn’t fight against it. You ain’t an iron man, sir.”
“Silence, sir!” cried the colonel angrily, and he hurried right out of the cave, closely followed by the boys, in time to see the mule disappear low down the gorge, galloping madly among the stones.
“Another—our most valuable pack mule gone,” cried the colonel, in a voice full of the anger and annoyance he felt. “The poor brute must have strayed out to graze.”
“Yes, sir; I saw it eating when I awoke, and then directly after the arrow struck it.”
“Then the Indians must be close at hand. Come back and help to secure the rest of the mules, or they may be straying out after their leader.”
Cyril looked in the colonel’s face, and then pointed down the valley at something moving, plainly seen now in the clear morning atmosphere.