rez was going along quickly, but
very carefully, when he suddenly stopped and listened.

He could hear distinctly someone coming down the ravine. Just a few
steps ahead of him was a shelf below the edge of the bank. Juarez made
a spring and climbed up to the shelf in a jiffy, but he loosened a
little dirt that slid down to the bottom of the gully. It made only a
little noise, but enough to reach the ears of Gus Gols.

He stopped as though petrified, glaring ahead through the darkness.
For five minutes he stood thus with every sense ferociously alert.
Then he went forward, but with extreme caution. Every few feet he
examined the floor of the gully for the signs of some footprint.
Juarez waited like a graven image, hoping that the man, whoever it
might be, would continue up the gully; then he would follow and trap
him when he reached the hill.

Juarez could not be sure that there was only one. He could hear
nothing, but he was certain that the man was very near. Some instinct
told him that. Then beneath his eyes a long, bent, stealthy figure
crept into view. Gols felt the footprints in the sand of the gully,
then he glared up. He saw the stooping figure of Juarez and jumped
instantly back around the curve of the bank.

The game was up. Juarez leaped out on the level and made a dash for a
boulder a short distance away. Just as he reached its shelter Gols
fired, and the bullet zinged from the side of the rock off into the
darkness. Then Gols got a surprise, for Juarez fired at a dark bunch
looking over the edge of the gully. The bullet breezed his cheek and
Gols ducked.

The sound of the shots aroused both sides, and the battle was on.
Juarez now backed cautiously down into a depression and ran with all
his might to give the news to Jim. He got to the hill just in time to
warn Jim and Jo not to go up the gully.

"This is the way they will make their attack," said Juarez. "We can
station ourselves behind these trees, and, when they come out of the
gully, we will let 'em have it."

"That's the scheme," agreed Jim. "Which one did you have the duel
with, Juarez?"

"The blond beauty himself," replied Juarez. "He didn't miss me far
either, but I made him take to cover pretty quick."

"They will be here in about fifteen minutes," said Jim. "We might as
well get to our places."

Tom was left in the stockade, and Jim and the other three boys took
their stations behind convenient trees upon the slope of the hill
command