"Do you propose that we shall stand and fight?" Cummings asked.
"There is nothing else to be done."
"But we have no show against them."
"As much as to run."
"Here in the open they can soon surround us."
"We will be able to throw up a line of these rocks before they get here, and because it is in the open we can hold them back a few hours."
There was plenty of material near at hand with which to make a shelter sufficient to protect them from the poisoned arrows, and after a few seconds' hesitation Cummings saw that Poyor's plan was the only one which could be carried into execution.
"Set to work lively, boys," he shouted, as he began to throw up the smaller boulders in a circle. "Everything depends on our getting a fort ready before they come within shooting distance."
There was no necessity of urging the boys or Jake to labor industriously. They could see the enemy and hear their yells of triumph at having tracked the game so successfully, therefore not a second was wasted.
It seemed as if Poyor had the strength of a dozen men in his arms. He lifted huge boulders which the remainder of the party together could hardly have moved from their resting place; flung the smaller ones around as if they were nothing more than pebbles, and when the circle had been raised four feet high, set about digging away the sand from the center in order to increase the depth.