rled up in the nest that Jim had just
vacated.

"Now don't be alarmed," said Jim, "if you hear an occasional shot. You
won't need to show up unless you hear two or three in succession. Santa
and I will defend the fort now, so you can take things easy."

"That suits me," I replied, "don't forget to take your umbrella and be
sure and don't get your feet wet."

"You needn't worry, my boy, I will take care of myself."

Then Jim crawled out of the door and disappeared in the darkness,
followed by Santa. I can not explain why, but I felt perfectly
comfortable and entirely safe and was soon fast asleep.

The next thing I knew, Jim was standing over me.

"Were you going to sleep all day?" he inquired.

"Why, it is daylight," I exclaimed, sitting up, "and it has cleared
too."

For I saw a patch of sunshine laid like a mat in front of the door of
our camp.

"It's a fine day for hunting Apaches," remarked Jim.

"Anything happened while I was asleep?" I enquired.

"All quiet along the Potomac," replied Jim. "Santa Anna had one growling
spell, but I guess it was the stomach ache. I skirmished around below
the rock but I couldn't find anything."

"You idiot," I said, "didn't you know better than that. It's a wonder
that they didn't get you."

"I guess you scared 'em so when you flung the rock at the dark brother
that they haven't dared to peep since."

"I suppose that we might as well sit down to our frugal meal," I
suggested.

It certainly was as I described it and it made me feel pretty gloomy
when I thought how short we were for food and water, especially the
latter. Just then we heard a deep growl from Santa, whom Jim had left at
the head of the trail on guard.

In a second Jim and I had sprung out on deck to find out the cause of
the disturbance. We found Santa barring the way so that Piute and Coyote
could not go down the trail.

"Good dog," said Jim, patting him on the head. "The ponies are thirsty,
I reckon, and thought that they would go for water. Lucky Santa stopped
them."

"We will have to fix it so they can't escape," I said.

This we had no great difficulty in doing. It was the most exciting
incident of the day. We found that the Apaches were on the alert, for
whenever one of us showed himself, just the lift of the head, there came
a quick shot or the unerring flight of an arrow.

"It's lucky for us," remarked Jim, "that this is a wide valley instead
of a canyon, for if they could climb up any