ard a little fizz and
sputter from below. At that my hair riz right up so I could feel the
breeze blow under my hat. For about six seconds I stood there like an
imbecile, grinning amiably. Then one of the Chiricahuas made a sort of
grunt, and I sabed that they'd seen the original exhibit your Uncle Jim
was making of himself.

"Then that fuse gave another sputter and one of the Apaches said, 'Un
dah.' That means 'white man.' It was harder to turn my head than if I'd
had a stiff neck; but I managed to do it, and I see that my ore dump
wasn't more than ten foot away. I mighty near overjumped it; and the
next I knew I was on one side of it and those Apaches on the other.
Probably I flew; leastways I don't seem to remember jumping.

"That didn't seem to do me much good. The renegades were grinning and
laughing to think how easy a thing they had; and I couldn't rightly
think up any arguments against the notion--at least from their
standpoint. They were chattering away to each other in Mexican for the
benefit of Maria. Oh, they had me all distributed, down to my suspender
buttons! And me squatting behind that ore dump about as formidable as a
brush rabbit!

"Then, all at once, one of my shots went off down in the shaft.

"'Boom!' says she, plenty big; and a slather of rocks and stones come
out of the mouth, and began to dump down promiscuous on the scenery. I
got one little one in the shoulder blade, and found time to wish my ore
dump had a roof. But those renegades caught it square in the thick of
trouble. One got knocked out entirely for a minute, by a nice piece of
country rock in the head.

"'Otra vez!' yells I, which means 'again.'

"'Boom!' goes the Ole Virginia prompt as an answer.

"I put in my time dodging, but when I gets a chance to look, the Apaches
has all got to cover and is looking scared.

"'Otra vez!' yells I again.

"'Boom!' says the Ole Virginia.

"This was the biggest shot of the lot, and she surely cut loose. I ought
to have been halfway up the hill watching things from a safe distance,
but I wasn't. Lucky for me the shaft was a little on the drift, so she
didn't quite shoot my way. But she distributed about a ton over those
renegades. They sort of half got to their feet uncertain.

"'Otra vez!' yells I once more, as bold as if I could keep her shooting
all day.

"It was just a cold, raw blazer; and if it didn't go through I could see
me as an Apache parlor ornament. But it did. Those Chiric