The preparations were not yet completed when the foremost of the pursuers came in view from beneath a ledge about forty yards away, and he said to Cummings:
"Three guns are enough to hold them back while Jake and I finish the work here. Do not hesitate to shoot, for they will stop at nothing when the time comes that we can hold out no longer."
"Teddy, you sit there," Cummings said, as he pointed to an aperture in the wall which had been left as a loop-hole. "Neal, you're stationed next to him, and I'll hold this place. Now work lively, and pick off every one of those yelling villains that comes within range."
He discharged both barrels of his weapon in rapid succession as he ceased speaking, and the two leaders disappeared immediately; but whether they had been hit by the leaden messengers, or only frightened, no one could say.
Teddy raised his gun as a third man pressed forward, and, as he afterward confessed, closed his eyes while pulling the trigger, for to fire deliberately at a human being was something inexpressibly terrible.
Even if he did not hit the mark the bullet must have gone so near the man as to frighten him, for when Neal discharged his weapon at a fourth Indian the entire party beat a retreat, disappearing behind the ledge.
"They can't send an arrow from that distance with any accuracy of aim," Cummings said in a tone of satisfaction, "therefore we may count on keeping them back until night, at all events."
"And then what?" Teddy asked with a shudder.
"That is something we won't talk about yet awhile," was the grave reply. "We've got at least twelve hours before us, providing they don't catch us napping, and at such a time as this it is a much longer lease of life than I expected."
Teddy and Neal looked at each other in silence. The situation must indeed be desperate if Cummings could count on remaining at liberty only one day, and then——