e. "We've been hearing a lot lately of the expected redskin uprising,
and we wanted to know if you had a line on the real situation, Buck. Is
there anything really doing, or is it all just talk?"

"I dunno," answered the driver, "some says yes an' some says no, but
if you want my honest opinion I'd say thet the Injuns ain't got nerve
enough to start trouble no more. Why, they're so all-fired meek an' lowly
thet----"

Zip! A bullet whizzed through the sultry air and whirled the stage
driver's slouch hat from his head. Zip! Zip! Zip! and the air was alive
with the whine and drone of bullets.

"Hold-ups, by the 'tarnal," yelled the driver, accompanying his words
with a whirl of oaths. "Down behind the coach, Sam!" addressing the
guard, who always rode beside him on the box with loaded rifle; "we'll
stand 'em off, or I'm a greaser."

The guard leaped down behind the coach at the same moment that Bert and
Dick and Tom made for the same shelter. There were only two passengers
in the coach, and they, pale of face and with chattering teeth, joined
the little group.

"Them shots came from that bunch of chaparral over there," said Buck,
"but it's an almighty queer way for road agents to go about a job. They
ginerally----"

"Injuns!" shouted the guard, who had been peering cautiously around the
end of the coach. "Injuns, by the Lord Harry, shoot me if they ain't!"

A thrill passed over the three comrades, and they looked warily forth in
the direction in which the guard had pointed. Sure enough, over the top
of the chapparal they could discern a number of hideously painted faces
surmounted by tufts of eagle feathers. The guard, recovering from his
first paralysis of astonishment, took careful aim at one of them and
pulled the trigger. A yell of pain followed the report of his rifle, and
a savage shout went up from the band of redskins. They answered with a
volley that bored through the sides of the coach, and narrowly missed
several of the little group gathered behind it.

"We got to turn the coach over," exclaimed Buck, "the top an' floor's a
whole lot thicker than the sides, and besides, as it is there's nothin'
to prevent the bullets from comin' in underneath. Lend a hand, everybody,
and we'll get 'er over."

He crept in between the mules and commenced unharnessing them. Bert and
his friends leaped to his assistance, although during the process they
were much more exposed to the fire of the Indians. The latter were not