t o' good. Wagh! them niggurs ur gettin' nigher!"

We were riding directly for the middle of the mesa, whose cliff, like a
vast wall, rose up from the level plain. We headed for its central
part, as though we expected some gate to open in the rock and give us
shelter!

Shouts of astonishment could be heard mingling with the hoof-strokes.
Some of the expressions we heard distinctly. "Whither go they?"
"_Vaya_! do they intend to ride up the cliff?" "_Carrambo! bueno! bueno!
van en la trampa_!" (Good! they are going into the trap!)

Shouts of exultation followed, as they saw us thus voluntarily placing
ourselves in a position from which retreat appeared impossible.

They had been apprehensive, on our first galloping off, that we might be
mounted on swift horses, and meditated escaping by speed; but on
discovering that this was not our intention, cries of joyful import were
heard; and as we approached the cliff, we saw them deploying behind us,
with the design of hemming us in. It was just the movement we had
anticipated, and the very thing we desired them to do.

We galloped up close to the rocky wall before drawing bridle; then,
suddenly flinging ourselves to the ground, we placed our backs to the
cliff, drew our horses in front of us, and holding the bridles in our
teeth, raised our rifles towards the foe.

Once more the three shining tubes were levelled, promising certain death
to the first who should approach within range.

CHAPTER THIRTY FOUR.

RUBE'S CHARGER.

Our attitude of defence, thus suddenly assumed, produced a quick effect
upon our pursuers, who pulled up simultaneously on the prairie. Some
who had been foremost, and who fancied they had ridden too near, wheeled
round and galloped back.

"Wagh!" ejaculated Rube; "jest look at 'em! they've tuk care to put
plenty o' paraira atween our guns an thur cowardly karkidges. Wagh!"

We at once perceived the advantage of our new position. We could all
three show front wherever the enemy threatened. There was no longer any
danger of their practising the surround. The half-circle behind us was
covered by the mesa, and that could not be scaled. We had only to guard
the semicircle in front--in fact, less than a semicircle, for we now
perceived that the place was _embayed_, a sort of re-entering angle
formed by two oblique faces of the cliff. The walls that flanked it
extended three hundred yards on either side, so that no cover commanded
our pos