CHAPTER V
THE WHITE DOME
The tide of cool water restored Will's nerves. After drinking he bathed his face in it, and then poured it over his neck. Good as he knew water to be he had never known that it could be so very good. It was in truth the wine of life. He shook out his thick hair, wet from the rill, and said triumphantly and aloud to the animals:
"We beat 'em back, Jim Boyd, the Little Giant and me, and we can do it again. We beat back a whole band of the Sioux nation, and we defy 'em to come on again. And you predicted it, all six of you! And you predict that we'll do it a second time, don't you?"
He was in a state of great spiritual exaltation, seeing things that others might not have seen, and he distinctly saw the six wise heads of the brutes, dumb but knowing so much, nod in affirmation.
"I accept the omen!" he said, some old scrap of Latin translation coming into his mind, "and await the future with absolute confidence!"
The horses and mules, stirred at first by the shots, and then not caring, perhaps, to rest, began to graze. All sign of alarm was gone from them and Will's heart resumed its normal beat. He listened attentively, but no sound came from the pass where his comrades, those deadly sharpshooters, watched. Far overhead the cliffs towered, and over them a sky darkly blue. He looked at it a little while, and then went back to the pass.
He had left his glasses with them, and they had not been able to discover anything suspicious.
"They won't come again into the mouth of the pass," said Boyd with confidence. "That rush cost 'em too much. They'll spend a long time thinking up some sort of trick, and that being the case you go now, Giant, and have a drink at the stream, and pour water over your head and face as Will has done."