. There was no assurance that the
boys could hold out until assistance should come. Finally, about
midnight, I, too, fell asleep, but not soundly, as the situation was
always half consciously before me.

"I woke up in the early dawn, and it did not take Tom and me long to get
through our breakfast. After we had watered our horses at a stream in
the bottom of a ravine, about a half mile distant, we proceeded to
reconnoiter the situation.

"I felt that something must be done this day and it was certainly a
perplexing condition of affairs, and in many ways it was desperate. The
responsibility for the two beleaguered boys weighed on me.

"One thing gave me assurance and that was Jim Darlington's resource and
pluck. At least he and Jo knew enough not to be taken alive by those
fiendish Apaches. However, it must not come to that.

"We went along below the south side of the ridge until opposite the hill
fort, but I was not able to take any observation on account of the thick
covering of trees, so I left Tom there and worked my way down the valley
slope of the mountain until I was within a half mile of the hill.

"Then I came to a great pine that towered like a commanding general
above the rank and file of common trees. I drove my knife deep into its
trunk, and this gave me a foothold from which I was able to reach a
lower branch.

"Quickly I clambered up until I was high enough to look over the
surrounding trees. Cautiously I gazed down from behind the trunk.
Everything was spread out before me. I could see the two ponies standing
on the top of the hill.

"Jo and Jim were moving about inside their defences, apparently
indifferent. I could see how cleverly they had built up their fort. If
there was only some way in which I could let them know that I was near.

"But what appalled me was the number of the Apaches. I could see that
there were hundreds of them moving like stealthy, cruel snakes through
the undergrowth.

"My jaw gripped itself and my resolution hardened. Something must be
done. I descended swiftly from the tree, and as I went back up the
slope, my mind was working at high tension. Then, when I reached the top
of the ridge my plan came to me. And I struck my leg with my clenched
hand. 'I have it! I have it!' I exclaimed.

"It was a broad, desperate scheme, but it would work, it must work. I
took careful note of the weather, not a cloud was to be seen anywhere.
'That's good,' I said, 'no rainstorms to-day.