He had halted in an open part of the country, and the stars, as they glowed brilliantly in the heavens above, showed him the trail which he had made dangerous for some distance east and west.
With one of the huge revolvers cocked, in his right hand, Midnight Jack then kept his eyes fastened down the road, over which some kind of a vehicle was lumbering.
Louder and shriller resounded the whip, never for one moment at rest, and a puzzled expression of countenance settled on the road-agent's face as he rose in his heavy stirrups, eager to see the approaching team.
All at once a wild cachinnation, followed by a series of fiendish yells, drowned the reports of the whip, and the situation was instantly explained to the road-agent.
“Indians!” ejaculated Midnight Jack.
The wagon—for the noise told the keen senses of the road-agent that but one four-wheeled vehicle was approaching—continued to rattle over the not very smooth road, accompanied by real Indian yells.
A common wagon, to which four strong-limbed mules were harnessed, greeted the brigand's eyes. On each side of the hindmost beasts sat a half-naked Indian, whose hands griped articles entirely strange to them—whip and lines. Nor was this all. At least ten savages were crowded into the bed of the vehicle, dancing like fiends, and filling the air with those wild sounds which had so often assailed the ears of Midnight Jack.
Evidently they had imbibed liquor in no inconsiderable quantities, and they were pushing each other about in their drunken orgies, threatening to overturn the wagon, or frighten the mules, already ungovernable, into a runaway.
The wagon lumbering over the road had now reached a point almost directly abreast of the still unseen road-agent, and, as his hands shot up, a “navy” tightly clutched by each, his well-known “halt!” spoken in deep thunder-tones, fell upon the ears of the carousing Indians.
In an instant of time, as it seemed, the orgies were hushed, and the savage who had the lines, rising in the stirrups, jerked the lead mules upon their haunches, and prepared to leap to the ground.