up
the hole behind me with the wet sacks, taking the risk of snake bites
in preference to the tender mercies of the Indians. As these ground
lairs take a turn a few feet down and are connected with various
underground passages and have several outlets, I had a fair prospect to
escape should the Indians discover my whereabouts, for they could
neither burn nor smoke me out, and were not likely to take the time to
reduce my fort by starvation. It took me but a very short time to make
my preparations, and I did it unnoticed by my companions, who seemed
fully preoccupied with their own troubles.

A horseman galloped up to our division, a great, swarthy,
fierce-looking man, bearded like the pard. This man did not act like a
scared person. One glance at the frightened faces of his countrymen
sufficed to enlighten and also to enrage him.

"Senores," he said, "I perceive you are anxious and ready for a fight.
I hope the Indians will accommodate us, as we are greatly in need of a
little sport. It may happen that some of you will lose your scalps, and
I hope that it is not you, Senor Felipe Morales. I should be very sorry
for your poor old mother and your crippled sister, for who will support
them if you should fail them? As for you, Senor Juan, it does not
matter much if you never again breathe the air of New Mexico. Your
young little wife has not yet had an opportunity to know you fully,
anyway, and your cousin, the strapping Don Isidro Chavez, will surely
take the best care of her. They say he calls on her daily to inquire
after her welfare. Senor Cuzco Gonzales, as you might be unlucky enough
to leave your bones on this prairie, I would advise you to make me heir
to your garden of chile peppers. To be sure, I never saw a more
tempting crop! Mayhap you will have no further use for chile, as the
Indians are likely to heat your belly with hot coals, in lieu of
peppers."

Then he called for the cook. "Senor Doctor," he said, "prepare the
medicine for this man, who is too sick to load a musket properly, and
had to be shown how to do so by a little gringo, as I observed a while
ago. Hold him, Senores." And they held him down while the cook
administered the medicine, forcing it down his unwilling throat. The
medicine was compounded from salt, and the prescribed dose was a
handful of it dissolved in a tin cupful of water. This seemed to revive
the patient's faltering spirit wonderfully. The cook, a half-witted
fellow, was another