paches were gathered around the place where the antelope had
lain. They were examining the ground, then suddenly two of the braves
caught sight of us. Never was there a more surprised crowd of Indians.
Stealth they could understand, but not such open bravado. For a moment
they seemed actually stunned.

Jim brought his rifle to his shoulder and fired and I promptly followed
suit. An Indian and a pony fell. Two out at the first shot. It warmed
our blood with confidence.

War was declared. With fierce yells they started in pursuit. Firing a
volley that went wild, though there was a whistle of bullets over our
heads and some spurted the dust on the plain short of us.

"Now let them go," yelled Jim.

Coyote and Piute seemed to fully realize the situation and away they
flew, all their pent up energy going into a wild burst of speed that
lasted for a half mile.

We gained on most of the Indians, but the big chief and two others kept
nearly parallel with us on the other side of the gully, trying to cut us
off from the mountains.

CHAPTER IV

THE CHASE

In the last mile, however, we pulled away from them, as their ponies did
not have the well fed strength of ours. We exchanged shots as we rode,
but the motion and speed made our aim uncertain, as fortunately too was
theirs.

I found out later that the nearest call I had, or rather Coyote had, was
where a bullet struck into the piece of antelope that was swung on my
saddle.

With a last thrilling dash we charged into the shelter of the foothills
among the rocks and pines. Here we swung off from our ponies and ran
back to check our foremost pursuers. The three who were in the lead had
absolutely disappeared.

But a half mile below were to be seen the rest of the Indians scampering
like mad to overtake us.

"Where have those three gone?" I asked.

"They have taken to the ravine," replied Jim, "we can't stop here, they
would surround us in a jiffy. We will have to go higher up the canyon."

There was no chance for us to make our home camp, for the Indians that
were coming up the plain, would have headed us off.

So we sprang on our ponies again. They had recovered their wind in the
brief rest we had given them. With the impetus of the great danger just
behind us we started on a reckless dash up the canyon. We were
determined to find some place we could defend, even if we could not
escape.

We tore through the brush, jumped fallen logs, scrambled between