's more 'n I do. I'd like to know what ye want to git wet for.
Do ye wish to put your old carcass into an agey?"

"If it rains two hours, do 'ee see," continued Rube, without paying
attention to the last interrogatory, "we needn't stay hyur, do 'ee see?"

"Why not, Rube?" inquired Seguin, with interest.

"Why, cap," replied the guide, "I've seed a skift o' a shower make this
hyur crick that 'ee wudn't care to wade it. Hooray! it ur a-comin',
sure enuf! Hooray!"

As the trapper uttered these exclamations, a vast black cloud came
rolling down from the east, until its giant winds canopied the defile.
It was filled with rumbling thunder, breaking at intervals into louder
percussions, as the red bolts passed hissing through it. From this
cloud the rain fell, not in drops, but, as the hunter had predicted, in
"spouts."

The men, hastily throwing the skirts of their hunting shirts over their
gun-locks, remained silent under the pelting of the storm.

Another sound, heard between the peals, now called our attention. It
resembled the continuous noise of a train of waggons passing along a
gravelly road. It was the sound of hoof-strokes on the shingly bed of
the canon. It was the horse-tread of the approaching Navajoes!

Suddenly it ceased. They had halted. For what purpose? Perhaps to
reconnoitre.

This conjecture proved to be correct; for in a few moments a small red
object appeared over a distant rock. It was the forehead of an Indian
with its vermilion paint. It was too distant for the range of a rifle,
and the hunters watched it without moving.

Soon another appeared, and another, and then a number of dark forms were
seen lurking from rock to rock, as they advanced up the canon. Our
pursuers had dismounted, and were approaching us on foot.

Our faces were concealed by the "wrack" that covered the stones; and the
Indians had not yet discovered us. They were evidently in doubt as to
whether we had gone on, and this was their vanguard making the necessary
reconnaissance.

In a short time the foremost, by starts and runs, had got close up to
the narrow part of the canon. There was a boulder below this point, and
the upper part of the Indian's head showed itself for an instant over
the rock. At the same instant half a dozen rifles cracked; the head
disappeared; and, the moment after, an object was seen down upon the
pebbles, at the base of the boulder. It was the brown arm of the
savage, lying palm up