"You may think so," said Rob, with a reassuring smile; "but that's the time you shoot wild, Andy. Our prospects were never so bright as they are right now."
Even Merritt and Tubby showed that they were surprised to hear Rob speak in so positive a way, when it was plainly to be seen that the men on the hillside were becoming bolder, and apparently getting ready to rush the defenses of the rebel force a little later, after they had covered more ground.
"Show your hand, Rob," said Merritt; "you're holding something out of sight, or you wouldn't talk like that. I know your ways; what's doing?"
"Listen, and you'll hear the rebels cheering right now!" said Rob.
"Yes, that's so," Andy replied; "but then they're ready to yell if anything happens. When that Federal lost his hold and fell about five feet, scrambling around like a squirrel that had missed its jump from one limb to another, they whooped it up till you'd thought the fight was won! What are they cheering for now, Rob?"
"Lopez has told the captain, as I made him promise to, when things began to look kind of gloomy all along the line; and they're passing it on," Rob observed.
"Yes, that's all very fine, but passing what along?" demanded Andy.
"Now that the cheering has let up for a few seconds, and the Federals have stopped firing to puzzle out what the row means, suppose you boys trim your ears, and see if you don't get some sort of sound that surprises you!"
"Great Cæsar! that rumbling must mean a train somewhere, Rob!" ejaculated Merritt excitedly; while Andy chimed in:
"Does it, Rob? And did you glimpse it coming when you were away up yonder on the peak of the rocks?"