too."

"And did you, Joses?"

"Well, I did, Master Bart, but it took me a long while for it. I knew
exactly where it was, but I couldn't see it for the crowd of fellows
round, and I daren't shoot unless I was sure, or else I should have
brought them on to me like a shot."

"Of course, of course, Joses," cried Bart, who was deeply interested.

"Well, Master Bart, I had to wait till I thought I should never get a
chance, and then they opened right out, and I could see the exact spot
where to send my bullet, when I trembled so that I daren't pull trigger,
and when I could they all crowded up again."

"But they gave you another chance, Joses?" cried Bart excitedly.

"To be sure they did, my lad, at last, and that time it was only after a
deal of dodging about that there was any chance, and, laying my rifle on
the rock, I drew trigger, saw the stones, flash as the bullet struck,
just, too, when they were all cheering, the beasts, at what they'd done
to those two poor fellows."

"And then there was the awful flash and roar, Joses?"

"Yes, Master Bart, and the Injuns never knew what was the matter, and
that's all."

"All, Joses?"

"Yes, Master Bart, and wasn't it enough? But you'd better not tell the
master; he might say he didn't object to an Injun or two killed in
self-defence, but that this was wholesale."

Bart promised to keep the matter a secret, and he went about for the
rest of the day pondering upon the skill of Joses with the rifle, and
what confidence he must have had in his power to hit the keg hidden
under the stones to run such a risk, for, as he said, a miss would have
brought down the Indians upon him, and so Bart said once more.

"Yes, Master Bart; but then, you see, I didn't miss, and we've got rid
of some of the enemy and scared the rest away."

CHAPTER NINETEEN.

BEATING UP FOR RECRUITS.

The cause of the explosion remained a secret between Bart and Joses, and
in the busy times that followed there was but little opportunity for
dwelling upon the trouble. The Doctor was full of the discovery and the
necessity for taking steps to utilise its value, for now they were
almost helpless--the greater part of their ammunition was gone; their
force was weakened by the loss of two men; and, worst of all, it was
terribly insecure, for at any moment the Indians might get over their
fright, and come back to bury their dead. If this were so, they would
find that the task had already been done,