rest of the boys
in conclave assembled, that the time for action had arrived. Jeems
heaved a sigh of regret. There seemed no chance for quiet and
meditation. The other boys were calm, but serious.

"Let the horses graze a while," said Jim. "We have got a couple of
hours' leeway. Now we have got to build a stockade to protect our
horses and ourselves."

Five husky fellows can do a great deal in two hours and a half of
daylight. Jim had thought out his plan and talked it over with Juarez,
so there was no time lost in useless palaver. He had chosen a small
open space where the horses had been tethered the night before as the
place for the fort.

Jim and Juarez, aided by Jo, went to work cutting down trees. They
were old hands at this business, and it was a caution the way the
trees crashed and fell. Tom and Jeems were kept busy dragging fallen
logs from the slopes of the hill, and turning them up. In two hours'
time the square, rude fort was well under way.

Tom and Juarez were then sent to take the horses to the stream to
water them, and after that, to fill up every available pot, pan and
dish with water in case they should be besieged for any length of
time. This being done all hands turned in again to work on the fort,
until it grew too dark to see. Then a fire was built near the center
of the hill, and by the glare of its light they were able to continue
their work.

Jim sent Juarez, now that the enemy might come at any time, to keep
a lookout for them. He was the best of the boys for that work, being
a natural scout, and of unusually keen vision, especially at night.
There was a deep gully running from the foot of the hill to the slope
of the mountain, and Juarez followed along that toward the mountain
slope. Every once in a while he would climb up and look to see if
there was any sign of the approaching gang.

Juarez was confident that there would be no direct attack even under
cover of the darkness of the night. For that was not the method of Gus
Gols and his gang of outlaws. They would take the most secret way of
approach. In fact, Juarez was positive that they would come by this
same gully that he was in. Gus Gols had spoken of the gully in his
pow-wow with his clan, but he had said nothing about his plan of
attack. He kept all such things to himself. Juarez could hear clearly
the sound of axes as the boys worked upon their fort on the hill.

CHAPTER XXVI

A NIGHT ATTACK

The sound of the wor