They couldn't have seen us coming, lieutenant," eagerly spoke a young
recruit. "They must have thought the sergeant was alone, for when we
charged they just lit out for all they were worth, didn't they, Mike?"
he eagerly asked his comrade, an older trooper.

"Oh, shut up, Billy! There's nothing an Apache doesn't see, but we
were too far off to tell how many there was. I only saw one as he lept
away. Shure the sergeant was nearer,--he could have seen."

"Sergeant Wing, it is I, Lieutenant Drummond. Look up a moment if you
can. You were close to them, how many did you see?"

"How many Indians, sir?" asked Wing, faintly.

"Yes, how many?"

A pause. Then at last,--

"I didn't see one, sir."

X.

Another day had dawned and another patient was added to Miss Harvey's
hospital list at the caves. The original plan of starting on the
return soon after daybreak had now to be abandoned, as Drummond
explained, because here was a man who could not stand the journey.
Surely there would not be many hours before the relief party from
Stoneman, following their trail, would come speeding to the rescue,
bringing to the wounded the needed surgical skill and attention,
bringing to the Harvey girls their devoted father. The only question
in the young lieutenant's mind as the sun rose, a burning, dazzling
disk over the distant mountains to the east, was, which will be first
to reach us, friends or foes?

Wearied and shattered though he was and replete as the night had been
with anxiety and vigil, Drummond climbed the goat-track that led to
the sentry's perch feeling full of hope and pluck and fight. He and
his men had divided the night into watches, one being awake and astir,
not even permitting himself to sit a moment, while the others slept.
The fact that he was able to send back to the caves, have an
ambulance hitched in and driven down to where Wing lay wounded, and to
bear him slowly, carefully, back to shelter, reaching the caves
without further molestation before darkness set in, had served to
convince the young commander that he could count on reasonable
security for the night. Unless they know their prey to be puny and
well-nigh defenceless, Apaches make no assault in the darkness, and
so, with the coming of the dawn, he had about him fit for service a
squad of seven troopers, most of them seasoned mountain fighters. His
main anxiety now was for Wing, whose wound was severe, the bullet
having gone clear through, ju