eading the troops away. But the captain was not to be
tricked in that manner; and calmly ignoring the badly aimed
rifle-bullets, he made Bart lead, and getting the waggon-horses into a
sharp trot, they made straight now for the fortress-gate.

"Steady, steady!" shouted the captain; "no stampeding. Every man in his
place, and ready to turn when I cry Halt!--to fire, if needs be. Steady
there!"

His words were needed, for once set in motion like this, and seeing
safety so near, the waggon-drivers were eager to push on faster, and
made gaps in the waggon-train; but they were checked by the lancers, who
rode on either side, till at last faces began to appear on the various
ledges and the zigzag path up the mountain, and a loud cheer was heard,
telling that all was right.

Then came the fierce yelling of the Indians, who suddenly awoke to the
fact that they had put off their attack too long, and that the
waggon-train would escape them if they delayed much more.

Captain Miguel read the signs of their movements as if they were part of
an open book, and with a cry of satisfaction he shouted out, "At last!"

Then to the waggon-drivers, "Forward there, forward, and wheel to your
right under the rock. Then behind your waggons and horses for an
earth-work, and fire when it is necessary. You, my lad, see to that,
and get your friends to help."

This was shouted amidst the tramp of horses and the rattle and bumping
of the waggons, while the Indians were coming on in force not half a
mile away.

"Steady, steady!" shouted the captain, and then, almost imperceptibly,
he drew his men away from the sides of the waggon-train, which passed
thundering on towards the rock, while the lancers, as if by magic,
formed into a compact body, and cantered off by fours towards the
canyon.

"They've run; they've left us," yelled some of the drivers, in their
Spanish patois. "Forward, or we shall be killed."

But they were wrong; for all at once the little body of lancers swung
round and formed into a line, which came back over the same ground like
a wall, that kept on increasing in speed till the horses literally raced
over the level plain.

The Indians were at full gallop now, coming on like a cloud of horse,
yelling furiously as they stood up in their stirrups and waved their
lances, their course being such that the lancers would strike them, if
they charged home, at an angle.

All at once there was a fluttering of pennons, and t