There was no mistaking the value of such a place, for there was secure shelter for at least a hundred horses, and the entrance properly secured—an entrance so narrow that there was only room for one animal to pass through—storm or attack from the hostile Indians could have been set at defiance.
“Supposing a town to be built here somewhere up the mountain, this great enclosure would be invaluable,” said Bart, and, hurrying back, he fetched Joses to inspect the place.
“Ah, that’s not bad,” said the rough frontier man. “Why, Master Bart, what a cattle corral that would make! Block the mouth up well, they’d be clever Injuns who got anything away. Let’s put the horses in here at once.”
“Do you think it is necessary, Joses?” said Bart.
“It’s always necessary to be safe out in the plain, my lad,” replied Joses. “How do we know that the Injuns won’t come to-night to look after the men they’ve lost? Same time, how do we know they will? All the same, though, you can never be too safe. Let’s get the horses inside, my lad, as we have such a place, and I half wish now we’d gone up the mountain somewhere to make our camp. You never know when danger may come.”
“Horses in there,” said Bart to the Beaver, and he pointed to the entrance.
The chief nodded, and seemed to have understood them all along by their looks and ways, so that when the horses belonging to the English party were driven in that evening he had those of his own followers driven in as well, and it was settled that Joses was to be the watchman that night.
It was quite sundown when the Doctor returned, this time with Maude, whom he had taken to be an eye-witness of his good fortune. Bart went to meet them, and that glorious, glowing evening they sat in their little camp, revelling in the soft pure air, which seemed full of exhilaration, and the lad could not help recalling afterwards what a thoroughly satisfied, happy look there was in his guardian’s countenance as he sat there reckoning up the value of his grand discovery, and making his plans for the future.
Then came a very unpleasant episode, one which Bart hid from the Doctor, for he would not trouble him with bad news upon a night like that; but all the same it caused the lad intense annoyance, and he went off to where Joses was smoking his cigárito and staring at the stars.
“Tipsy! drunk!” he exclaimed. “What! Sam and Juan? Where could they get the stuff?”