“But I think they’re getting ready to rush Jose now!” the other went on to declare, with renewed excitement.
“What makes you think that, Andy?”
“They seem to have gathered in knots in three places, and act like they meant to make a swoop down on him from all sides at once,” came the answer.
“Well, if they’ll only hold off another minute or two we’ll fix things so that their swoop’ll turn out a fizzle. Tell me when they start out on the run, Andy, because I want to turn on our siren, you know.”
“Oh! I clean forgot all about that little trick Frank!”
Frank some time before had arranged a contrivance by means of which he could make the engine sound a loud-voiced whistle that he always called a siren, because it had all the harsh, discordant notes of the big steam fog-horns to be heard in some places along the stormy coasts of our country, where the dangerous shoals or reefs make it important that vessels should be warned while still far out at sea.
This could be made to do duty at a second’s notice. Of course the boys did not often sound the deep-throated whistle or horn, because it was apt to create too much alarm in every living thing that heard it for the first time, animals as well as human beings.
But in a desperate case such as the one by which they were now confronted this hoarse-tongued signal might prove the very finest auxiliary they could hope to have in alarming the attacking Indians.
And here Andy, with his usual thoughtlessness had entirely forgotten about such a means of sending out a warning; while Frank had it in his mind all along. That little incident showed the difference between the two cousins; for with all his good qualities Andy often forgot things that it would have paid him well to remember.
Both of them were intensely interested by now, and a study of their set faces would have been worth while. Andy did not depend on the glasses any longer to tell how things were progressing, since they had come close enough for him to see with the naked eye. Of course, the fact that they were several hundred feet above the level of the sand gave considerable assistance, for they were entirely free from the little dazzling heat waves that must hug the face of the desert more and more as the day advanced, making seeing perfectly a difficult job.