d up some small fallen trees from the slope
below and with stones, large and small, built up a barricade.

It seemed to me that Jim exposed himself unnecessarily to the fire of
the enemy. He seemed to be perfectly happy as the bullets hummed around
him, as he put a rock in place on the parapet. In fact he seemed to mind
them no more than the pouring rain.

It seemed like quite a little battle, with the rifle flashes from
behind the brush or rocks and Jim's grey figure on the wall of the fort.

"That's all hunky dory," said Jim. "It beats old Fort Sumter."

"Get up Piute, Coyote," I urged. "They are safe here now as in the old
cow pastures at home."

The ponies seemed to recognize that they were well protected, for they
began to graze around as comfortably as you please in the little hollow
with its surrounding rock, yanking at the bunches of tall grass and
biting the leaves of the scrub bushes. Everything is fodder to a
broncho.

"Let's get the saddles under shelter," said Jim.

So we dragged them down and put them in our camp under the big rock.
Next we built a fire in the dry shelter and made coffee in a big tin cup
we carried in our haversack.

Of course the grains were not as fine as though the original coffee had
been run through a coffee mill, for we had pounded it up in a hollow
cup-shaped rock with another stone for pestle.

"Hold on, Jo," exclaimed Jim. "Don't waste our canteen water on that
coffee, we may need it."

"You are not going down to the creek," I cried, in alarm.

I knew only too well what lengths Jim's bravado would carry him. For I
had not forgotten the time that he went down to the creek in our first
canyon in Colorado, on a moonlight night when we knew that there were
Indians lurking near. So I was prepared for the worst.

"No," he replied, to my intense relief, "I am going to look around
here."

"You won't find any on top of a hill like this," I said, "the water all
runs off."

"All right, my boy, but I'm going to look. You can stay in the kitchen
and cook the venison."

Then Jim stooped out of the front door and disappeared. In a short time
I heard his low, peculiar whistle and I ran out. I found Jim between two
large rocks.

"Here you are," he said.

I hastened to satisfy my curiosity. I saw quite a little water in a
pocket between the rocks.

"Quite a lake, isn't it?" asked Jim.

"Yes, it is a good deal when you don't expect anything," I replied.

"It will help us o