“All was, sir.”
“Then now we must make up for it.—Cyril, my lad, you have proposed exactly what I intended to do. Fortunately, we made a good meal last night. To-day we must feast again when we have retaken the baggage.—All ready? Fall in.”
The boys followed the colonel’s example, and leaped to their feet.
“Light marching order,” said the colonel, “so we ought to get along fast. That mule we saw, Cyril, shows that the others have been taken down the valley toward the great fall. There is no choice of road here, so I take it that the Indians are making their way straight back to their camp. Now, one word more. See that your weapons are ready for immediate use; no talking, but keep all your energies devoted to making observations in every direction. No rift or ravine likely to hide the enemy must be passed, if it is one possible for mules to climb. Now, forward.”
Then with a feeling of exhilaration that the boys could hardly comprehend, the little party started off with the colonel leading, and John Manning with his gun over his shoulder marching last, with a look in his face that suggested his feeling that he was guarding the rear of a column of advance once again.
Chapter Twenty Nine.
A Military Movement.
At the first spot which gave him an opportunity to examine the gorge, the colonel mounted to a narrow shelf and made good use of his glass, descending at last to say: “They have got a good start of us, but there is something about a quarter of a mile on that I can’t make out. Forward cautiously.”