" said Ralph. "Suppose I keep two of your
cattle-drivers constantly in advance. You had better instruct them
yourself. Tell them to fire the moment they discover an ambush. I don't
suppose they will hit anybody, but we want the warning."

With two horsemen three or four hundred yards to the front, two more an
equal distance in the rear, and, when the ground permitted, one on either
flank, the train continued its journey. Every wagon-driver and muleteer
had a weapon of some sort always at hand. The four soldiers marched a few
rods in advance, for the ground behind had already been explored, while
that ahead might contain enemies. The precautions were extraordinary; but
Thurstane constantly trembled for Clara. He would have thought a regiment
hardly sufficient to guard such a treasure.

"How timorous these men are," sniffed Aunt Maria, who, having seen no
hostile Indians, did not believe there were any. "And it seems to me that
soldiers are more easily scared than anybody else," she added, casting a
depreciating glance at Thurstane, who was reconnoitring the landscape
through his field glass.

Clara believed in men, and especially in soldiers, and more particularly
in lieutenants. Accordingly she replied, "I suppose they know the dangers
and we don't."

"Pshaw!" said Aunt Maria, an argument which carried great weight with her.
"They don't know half what they claim to. It is a clever man who knows
one-tenth of his own business." (She was right there.) "They don't know so
much, I verily and solemnly believe, as the women whom they pretend to
despise."

This peaceful and cheering conversation was interrupted by a shot ringing
out of a canon which opened into a range of rock some three hundred yards
ahead of the caravan. Immediately on the shot came a yell as of a hundred
demons, a furious trampling of the feet of many horses, and a cloud of the
Tartars of the American desert.

In advance of the rush flew the two Mexican vedettes, screaming, "Apaches!
Apaches!"

CHAPTER X.

When the Apache tornado burst out of the canon upon the train, Thurstane's
first thought was, "Clara!"

"Get off!" he shouted to her, seizing and holding her startled horse.
"Into the wagon, quick! Now lie down, both of you."

He thundered all this out as sternly as if he were commanding troops.
Because he was a man, Clara obeyed him; and notwithstanding he was a man,
Mrs. Stanley obeyed him. Both were so bewildered with surprise and te