“By the flag, sir,” said Bart. “There it is out upon the extreme right of the mountain. If the Indians had got the better of the Doctor’s party, they would have torn it down.”
“Or perhaps kept it up as a lure to entrap us,” said the captain, smiling; “but I think you are right about that.”
“What a splendid position for a city!” exclaimed the Governor, as they rode on towards where the waters of the lake gleamed brightly in the sun.
“Yes; a great town might be placed there,” said the captain, thoughtfully; “but you would want some large barracks and a little army,” he added with a smile, “to keep our friends there at a distance.”
For, as they neared the mountain, it seemed ominously like a certainty that the savages now meant to make a tremendous onslaught upon the band, for they were steadily coming on in large numbers, as if to meet the new-comers before they could form a junction with the holders of the rock.
“I don’t want to fight them if I can help it,” said Captain Miguel, scanning the approaching Indians carefully as they advanced—“not until the waggons are in safety. If we do have to charge them, you drivers are all to make for the rock, so as to get under the cover of our friends’ fire. That is, if it comes to a serious attack, but I do not think it will.”
The watchfulness and care now exercised by their leader showed how well worthy he was of being placed in such a position, and the men, even to the governor, obeyed him without a word, though at times his orders seemed to run in opposition to their own ideas. For he seemed to be almost skirmishing from the Indians, instead of making a bold stand, and the result was that when, after a couple of hours, they came on in strength, their insolence increased with the seeming timidity of the relieving force.
“You underrated the numbers, young gentleman,” said Captain Miguel at last, when the Apachés were in full force. “You said five hundred. I should say there are quite six, and as fine a body of well-mounted warriors as I have seen upon the plains.”
“Well, Miguel,” said the governor, “it seems to me that, unless you attack them, we shall all be swept into the lake.”