all be saved. Keep
up a good heart."

"But it is such a long ride, and even if you do get away, you may find
us dead or captives when you return."

"You must be brave, Brenda--no, not brave, for you are that already;
but be patient. We are sure to be here before those fellows can take
the little fort. That can be defended as long as the ammunition holds
out."

Then the boy kissed the pretty Brenda and her cousins, and dropped
into the cellar. Passing into the earthwork, he selected his saddle
and bridle from a heap of others, buckled on his spurs, dropped with
bowed head upon his knees a moment, and crept into the passage leading
to the spring. Groping his way between the narrow walls, he presently
emerged through a natural crevice in a mass of bowlders near the
spring. Standing in the screen of willows, he parted the branches
cautiously in the direction of the two Indians, and saw them less than
a hundred yards distant, standing with their backs towards him
watching the Arnold house, the roof of which was now a roaring,
leaping mass of flame.

Closing the boughs again, Henry opened them in an opposite direction
and crept softly up to Chiquita, holding out his hand to her. The
docile pony raised her head, and, coming forward, placed her nose in
his palm, submitting to be saddled and bridled without objection or
noise.

Leaping into the saddle, the boy drove his spurs into the animal's
flanks, and was off at a furious run in the direction of Whipple.
Startled by the hoof-beats, the Apaches looked back, and began running
diagonally across the field to try to intercept the boy before he
turned into the direct trail. Arrow after arrow flew after him, one
wounding him in the neck and another in the cheek, and when the
distance began to increase between him and his pursuers and they saw
the boy was likely to get away, one raised his rifle and sent a bullet
after him, which fractured the radius of his left arm.

"Well, Chiquita," said Henry, as he turned fairly into the Prescott
trail and had realized the exact nature of his injuries, "you haven't
got a scratch, and are good for this run if I can hold out."

It was dusk when Henry began his ride, and it rapidly grew darker as
he hurried along the trail. Neither he nor the pony had been over it
before. Twice he got off the trail, and long and miserable stretches
of time elapsed in regaining it; but the fort was reached at last and
the alarm given.

XVII

PUR