"But what appalled me was the number of the Apaches. I could see that there were hundreds of them moving like stealthy, cruel snakes through the undergrowth.
"My jaw gripped itself and my resolution hardened. Something must be done. I descended swiftly from the tree, and as I went back up the slope, my mind was working at high tension. Then, when I reached the top of the ridge my plan came to me. And I struck my leg with my clenched hand. 'I have it! I have it!' I exclaimed.
"It was a broad, desperate scheme, but it would work, it must work. I took careful note of the weather, not a cloud was to be seen anywhere. 'That's good,' I said, 'no rainstorms to-day. Now for a good wind and from the looks of things it's going to come,' and it did.
"Later it came on to blow, as it only can in the high altitudes.
"It was a wind from the New Mexican Desert, blowing through the canyons and roaring over the summits of the range. The fierce wind that blows from stark, clear horizons."
CHAPTER IX
A MOUNTAIN FIRE
It was the afternoon of the third day of our imprisonment that Jim and I had first discovered the forest fire.
"I suppose we will be like two beautiful browned potatoes with the jackets on," laughed Jim, who could not be disconcerted by any crisis. "Don't you worry, Jo, we will be pretty safe here I'm thinking."