w, and I saw that his fingers twitched
convulsively. I know what he wanted to do, and I saw what he did. If
ever a man showed the high bravery of moral courage, Fray Antonio showed
it then. Even Young, in whom I did not look for appreciation of bravery
of that sort, said afterwards that it was the pluckiest thing he ever
saw.

As Rayburn had expected, the Indians halted--but keeping more under
cover than he had counted upon--and held some sort of a council. But it
did not seem, from what we could see of their gestures, to relate to the
way that we might have taken so much as to the canon in which we
actually were concealed. They pointed towards the mouth of the canon
repeatedly, and it struck me that in their motions there was a curious
indication of dread or awe. One old man was especially vehement in
gestures of this unaccountable nature; and when at last the younger men
in the council seemed to revolt against his orders, this man, and all
the older men with him, retired down the valley whence they had come.

[Illustration: THE FIGHT IN THE CANON]

The young men, left to themselves, hesitated for a moment, and then with
a cry--as though for their own encouragement--came charging towards us
in a body. As we got a full view of them we perceived with much
satisfaction that their only arms were bows and arrows and long spears,
and that there were not more than twenty men in the lot. And then
Rayburn gave the order to fire. I confess that my hand so trembled as I
pulled the trigger of my rifle that I was not at all surprised to find
that the man whom I had fired at--a very tall, powerful young fellow,
who seemed to be in command--was not hit; but a man just behind him
dropped, and I had a queer feeling in my throat, and certain odd
sensations in my stomach, as I realized that I had shot him. Indeed, I
was so engrossed with meditations upon the curious ease with which a
man's life is let out of him, that I quite forgot for some seconds to
continue firing. The others, luckily, conducted themselves in a more
practical manner; and the little whirlwind of balls which sped from the
Winchesters made it wonderful, not that so many of the Indians fell dead
or wounded, as that any of them remained alive and unhurt. But eight of
them did survive their charge in the face of the storm of bullets that
we pelted at them; and these--headed by the tall fellow, who seemed
bullet-proof--came rushing at us over our breastwork of rocks, sho