th all the
strength he possessed.

Jack smiled in his happiness. He felt he had made his peace with all
men and at last was ready to meet death with a clear conscience.

"It looks like the end. But we'll fight for it."

The shrill war-whoops of the Indians, the first sound they had made in
the fight, showed they felt confident of overcoming the men in the next
rush.

Jack and Dick had abandoned the rifles and were now fighting the
Indians off with their revolvers as they closed in on them.

Hardie had halted the night before at Clearwater Spring. Finding it
but mud and alkali, he had merely rested his men and horses for a few
hours, and then pushed on for Apache Spring, where he hoped to strike
water. The troop rode through the early morning hours, full of grit,
and keen to overtake the Apaches, traces of whose flight were becoming
more evident every mile. All weariness had vanished. Even the horses
felt there was something in the air and answered the bugle-call with
fresh vigor and go.

A scout first heard the firing at the spring. He did not wait to
investigate, knowing he could do nothing alone. The volleys, the
difference in the reports of the rifles, proved to him that one party
was firing Springfields and the other Winchesters. He knew that the
Apaches were being held off. Galloping back to the troop, he reported
the fight to its commander.

The bugles sounded. The horses were forced into a gallop. With
clashing accouterments and jingling spurs and bits, they dashed across
the mesa to the head of the trail. Here they met Slim Hoover and his
posse coming from an opposite direction.

The firing in the canon was more intermittent now. Dick and Jack were
saving their revolver-shots. The Indians were closing in for the last
rush.

Hardie dismounted his men and threw his troops as groups of skirmishers
down the draws leading into one side of the canon. Slim and his posse
were on the left flank, armed with revolvers. Hardie, with a section,
dashed down the trail.

They came upon the Apaches with the rush of a mountain torrent,
striking them in the front and on the flank. The cavalrymen fired at
will, each plunging from one cover to another as he picked out his man.

The Indians, for a few moments, replied shot for shot. Their stand was
a short one, however, and they began to fall back.

Slim entered the canon at the head of the scouts, driving the Apaches
before him. Both Jack and Dick ha