As Seguin spoke, he pointed to a snow-crowned peak that towered over the
plain, far off to the eastward.

"The trail we oughter take for the ole mine passes clost by it, cap'n.
To the south'art o' yon snowy, thur's a pass; it's the way I got clur
myself."

"Very well; the party can take the mountain for their guide. I will
despatch them at once."

About twenty men, who rode the poorest horses, were selected from the
band. These, guarding the atajo and captives, immediately set out and
rode off in the direction of the snowy mountain. El Sol went with this
party, in charge of Dacoma and the daughter of our chief. The rest of
us prepared to defend the pass.

Our horses were tied in a defile; and we took our stands where we could
command the embouchure of the canon with our rifles.

We waited in silence for the approaching foe. As yet no war-whoop had
reached us; but we knew that our pursuers could not be far off; and we
knelt behind the rocks, straining our eyes down the dark ravine.

It is difficult to give an idea of our position by the pen. The ground
we had selected as the point of defence was unique in its formation, and
not easily described; yet it is necessary you should know something of
its peculiar character in order to comprehend what followed.

The stream, after meandering over a shallow, shingly channel, entered
the canon through a vast gate-like gap, between two giant portals. One
of these was the abrupt ending of the granite ridge, the other a
detached mass of stratified rock. Below this gate the channel widened
for a hundred yards or so, where its bed was covered with loose boulders
and logs of drift timber. Still farther down, the cliffs approached
each other, so near that only two horsemen could ride between them
abreast; and beyond this the channel again widened, and the bed of the
stream was filled with rocks, huge fragments that had fallen from the
mountain.

The place we occupied was among the rocks and drift, within the canon,
and below the great gap which formed its mouth. We had chosen the
position from necessity, at at this point the bank shelved out and
offered a way to the open country, by which our pursuers could outflank
us, should we allow them to get so far up. It was necessary, therefore,
to prevent this; and we placed ourselves to defend the lower or second
narrowing of the channel. We knew that below that point beetling cliffs
walled in the stream on both sides, so th