“Not than yours.”
“Well, I know that they are sharper than yours, Master Bart,” said Joses, with a chuckle; “and now look here—if you can see them out there against the dry brown plain miles away, don’t you think they could see us stuck up against the sky here in the bright morning sunshine, all this height above the ground?”
“Well, perhaps they could, if they were looking,” said Bart rather sulkily.
“And they are looking this way. They always are looking this way and every way, so don’t you think they are not. Now let’s go down.”
He set the example of how they should go down, by crawling back for some distance till he was below the ridge and beyond sight from the plain, Bart carefully following his example till he rose, when they started down the hill at as quick a trot as the rugged nature of the ground would permit, and soon after reached the waggon, which the Doctor had drawn into a position which hid it from the view of any one coming up from the entrance of the valley, and also placed it where, in time of peril, they might hold their own by means of their rifles, and keep an enemy at bay even if they did not beat him off.
Chapter Five.
“Surrounded by Indians.”
A good breakfast and a few hours’ rest seemed to put a different aspect upon the face of affairs; the day was glorious, and though the region they were in was arid and wanting in water, there was plenty to interest any one travelling on an expedition of research. A good look-out was kept for Indians, but the party seemed to have gone right away, and to give them ample time to get to a greater distance, Dr Lascelles determined, if he could find a spring anywhere at hand, to stay where they were for a couple of days.