ove, as he stood watching
something intently through the doctor's double glass.

"See any more, Wilton?" said the doctor anxiously.

"Scores," was the reply, given without the speaker turning his head.
"You can see for yourself; they're collecting together on the very edge
of the cliff away there, and at first they stood gazing down into the
depression."

"Do you think they saw you?" said the doctor hoarsely.

"Oh no, I feel sure that they did not at first, and I have kept in
shelter since; but they have caught sight of something else."

"What?" cried Griggs.

"Ah! You there?" said Wilton sharply. "You had better come and have a
look through this glass; you may be able to tell what race they are."

"Perhaps," said Griggs shortly; "but what is it they can see?"

"The ponies and mules."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes; there was one of the men, a chief apparently, pointing down at
them. I could see it plainly through the glass."

"Indians, Ned," whispered Chris. "They must have been following us all
this time, and we're in for it now."

CHAPTER THIRTY EIGHT.

BESIEGED.

Not a word was said then for some minutes, during which the glass was
passed from one to the other, and long, excited looks taken at the
strong body of bronze, half-nude warriors seated upon their ponies close
to the edge of the flat-topped range of cliffs, some four or five
hundred feet above the bottom of the depression.

The Indians were evidently looking down at something in front of the
ranges of openings which formed the old-world city, and it took no
thinking, after the party were once confident that they were not seen,
to decide what it was that took the attention of the roving tribe.

It was Chris who repeated Wilton's words.

"They're watching the mules and ponies," he said. "I saw one fellow
point at them when I had the glass to my eyes."

"And that is as good as saying that they are watching us," said Ned
sadly.

"Oh no," cried the doctor. "They can see some beasts grazing in this
verdant bottom; they can't tell at this distance that they are not
wild."

"Why, father," said Chris, "they have been hunting us for long enough."

"My dear boy, do you suppose that there is only one roving band of
Indians in all these thousands of square miles of wild country?"

"I--I--don't know, father," was the reply.

"Then you may take it as highly probable that these are not the Indians
we saw before."

"But they know that the m