“It seems kind of good,” said Juarez, “to have a horse to carry you.”
“I’m just tired enough to enjoy the change,” said Jim.
“It won’t take us long to reach camp now,” remarked Juarez.
“Cut ’em loose!” yelled Jim, and with a raucous Indian warwhoop, they let their willing horses go. I tell you that was a wild ride for speed. Caliente thundered with great leaps over the level plain, and not far behind scampered Juarez’s roan. The boys at the camp on the hill, hearing the clatter of horses’ feet, knew that someone was approaching, and looked out.
“Here they come like wild Indians!” exclaimed Tom.
“Somebody chasing them?” inquired Jeems anxiously.
“The same crowd that tied you, I reckon,” said Tom, and, for some reason unknown to Jeems, they went into fits of laughter. In a short time Jim and Juarez were in their midst. They did not waste any time in greetings and idle chaff. They made clear to the rest of the boys in conclave assembled, that the time for action had arrived. Jeems heaved a sigh of regret. There seemed no chance for quiet and meditation. The other boys were calm, but serious.
“Let the horses graze a while,” said Jim. “We have got a couple of hours’ leeway. Now we have got to build a stockade to protect our horses and ourselves.”
Five husky fellows can do a great deal in two hours and a half of daylight. Jim had thought out his plan and talked it over with Juarez, so there was no time lost in useless palaver. He had chosen a small open space where the horses had been tethered the night before as the place for the fort.