dless of
the shots which began to hiss from below. The speaker was still
shouting; his words were easily heard. Yells of approval and savage
delight punctuated every other sentence. "What was that?" demanded
Geordie, as the applause became furious.

"He say they make circle--all sides, uphill, sidehill, downhill. They
all together run in when he give the word."

"He fights like a Cheyenne," grinned the young commander. "How soon do
they begin?"

"Right off; now! They come from _all_ round!" was the almost agonized
cry.

"Then I won't have to lug you back. You can go!"

And like a frightened hare the young foreigner darted away, dodging and
diving up the slope, only to fall exhausted at the top, and then to
creep on all-fours to the shelter of the office. Already some of the
armed rioters had managed to climb far up the hill-side and from behind
rock or ledge to open fire on the platform. The range was full three
hundred yards, their aim was poor, and the bullets flew wild, but the
effect on this poor lad was all they could ask. He collapsed at the
opening door.

Leisurely, yet cautiously, Geordie climbed in his tracks--went first to
the office to give warning to Nolan, then round to the compressor to
instruct the little guard. Cawker poked a head from a window and looked
anxiously toward the gaping mouth of the ravine. The darkness of night
was already settling in its gloomy depths. The homely shed looked black
and forbidding. Aloft on each side were precipitous slopes affording
but slight foothold. Little likelihood was there of rioters sliding
down to attack them, but, suppose they pried loose, or blasted out,
some of those huge rocks up the mountain and sent them rolling,
bounding, crashing down? What might _then_ happen?

A bullet tearing through the shingling, ten feet above Cawker's
protruding head, made him jerk it in, like a turtle, but presently it
reappeared at the window.

"It's the dynamite I'm thinking of," said he. "A rock lighting on that
now--"

"Where is it?" interrupted Graham.

"In that first shed yonder--a dozen boxes."

"Bring two men and come along," was the quick order, and it was no time
now for reluctance, resentment, much less refusal. The two men summoned
shrank back and would not come, but Cawker found two who dared to
follow. It was a case of "duck and run" for all.

"Watch the hill-side above!" shouted Graham, in tones that rang through
every building and reached every ear.