ed that there
must be twenty or thirty Indians busily engaged in the work of heaping
up firewood in front of the cave. The mountain side, as he well knew,
was thickly strewn with dry branches, dead limbs, uprooted trees and all
manner of combustible material, and the very warriors who, when around
their own "rancheria," would have disdained doing a stroke of work of
any kind, were now laboring like so many beavers to add to the great
pile that was already almost on a level with the breastwork and not more
than eight feet away. Some of the logs first thrown had rolled off and
scattered down the slope, but enough had remained to make a sure
foundation, and once this was accomplished the rest was easy work.

Poor Jim looked around imploringly at his superior.

"Ain't dey some way to stop that, corporal?" he asked.

"Don't you worry, Jim," was the prompt reply. "It will take them an hour
more at least to get it big enough and then 'twill do no great harm. We
can knock down our barricade so that they can't use it and fall back
into the cave where it's dark and cool and where the smoke and flame
can't reach us. Keep your eyes on your corner, man!" But though he spoke
reassuringly, the old soldier felt a world of anxiety. Under cover of
that huge heap of brushwood, growing bigger every minute, it would soon
be possible for the Indians from below to crawl unseen close upon them,
and set fire to the mass.

Even now he felt certain that there were several of the more daring of
the Apaches lurking just around the corners which he and Jim were so
faithfully guarding. The negro seemed so utterly abashed at his having
been overcome by sleep during the hour before the dawn, and possibly so
refreshed by that deep slumber, that now he was vigilance itself.

Within the cave old Kate had seen, of course, the falling of the logs
and brushwood, and though she could not comprehend their object it
served to keep in mind that their savage foes were all around her and
her little charges, and to add to her alternate prayer and wailing.
Unable to leave his post, Pike could only call sternly to her from time
to time to cry shame upon her for frightening Nellie so, and to remind
her that they had shot five Indians without getting a scratch
themselves. "We can stand 'em off for hours yet, you old fool," he said,
"and the boys from Verde are sure to get here to-day." And whether it
was "old" or the "fool" in Pike's contemptuous remark, that stirr