ay ready to his hand, discharged them
right into the centre of a bush a few yards off.

"What on earth are you about?" exclaimed an indignant voice; and Hal,
his face covered with sand and mud, sprang out of the bushes and made
for his younger brother.

But Jim flung himself between them, and, aided by Drusie, they brought
Hal, kicking and struggling, to the ground, and sat upon him.

"The fort is ours," cried Drusie joyfully. "Run, Helen, and get the
flag before Hal can release himself."

Helen dashed off to do as she was told, but as she was flying across
the clearing she was suddenly brought up by a perfect hailstorm of
bullets, which played round her in all directions, and caused her to
fly back to the camp with the astounding information that it was not
Hal who had been defending the fort, but somebody else.

"If you had not behaved like a set of duffers who had all lost their
heads, I could have told you that myself," said Hal crushingly. "But
instead of letting me explain, you all flung yourselves upon me as if I
were your greatest enemy."

"Well, of course, we thought that you were," said Drusie. "We thought
that you had sallied out from the fort to take us all prisoners. But
if it is not you who have been in the fort all this time, who is it?"

But that was just what none knew; and Hal was as much in the dark as
the rest. He had awaked a quarter of an hour ago, feeling all right
again. "And so, I thought," he added, "that I had been rather a pig
about this birthday, and that, if you would have me, I'd come out and
defend the fort."

"Have you?" cried Drusie joyfully. "Of course, we will--won't we, Jim?"

"Rather," Jim said; and that word of assent was heartily echoed by both
Helen and Tommy. "But I say, Drusie, if it is not Hal in the fort, who
on earth can it be?"

"I know," Drusie said, after a moment of puzzled silence; "it must be
our friend--Jumbo's boy."

When Hal heard of the lassos he cried out that it was no less a person
than Dodds.

"I know it is he," he cried excitedly, "for he is awfully keen about
lassos. He has been reading about the cowboys in Texas, and the other
day he was practising on the lawn."

"Whoever it is," Drusie said, "he defends the fort awfully well. I
don't believe we shall ever capture it."

"Oh yes, we shall," said Jim, "now that Hal has come to help us."

"Just fancy Dodds playing with you kids all the afternoon," Hal said in
a tone of surprise. "I