"Midday and ten minutes," promptly replied the Mexican, casting an eye at the sun; while I, pulling out my watch, saw that he had hit it exactly, as he always did, I found later.
"Then let us get back to the lake," said Dick. "Hark! What was that? The water makes so much noise that I can't be sure, but it sounded to me like wolves howling."
Pedro nodded his big head. "It will be well to go down to where there are some trees," said he. "This arroyo, with its high walls, is not a good place."
As we walked down the ravine and got further away from the water, we could hear more distinctly the cry of the wolves. Pedro stopped short and listened intently.
"There is a good many of them," said he. "I think they come hunting us. Let us get up on this rock here and wait a little."
In the middle of the ravine lay a great flat-topped stone, about six feet high, and to the top of this we soon scrambled—there was plenty of room—and there for a minute or two we waited. The cry of the hunting wolves grew louder and louder, and presently, around a bend a short distance below, loping along with their noses to the ground, there came a band of sixteen of them. At sight of us they stopped short, and then—showing plainly that they knew of no danger to themselves—with a yell of delight at having run down their prey, as they supposed, they came charging up the ravine!
CHAPTER XVII The Bridge
As the pack came racing up the gulch, we waited an instant until a narrow place crowded them into a bunch, when Dick called out, "Now!" and we all fired together into the midst of them. Three of the wolves fell, two dead—I could see the feather of Pedro's arrow sticking out of the ribs of one of them—and one with its back broken.