cowardly to turn back now,
that he decided to go forward and risk all.

"We always have our rifles," he said softly to himself, "and if we can
use them well, we may force the Indians to respect us if they will not
treat us as friends."

And all this while the waggon jolted on over the rough ground or rolled
smoothly over the flat plain, crushing down the thick buffalo-grass, or
smashing some succulent, thorny cactus with a peculiar whishing sound
that seemed to penetrate far through the silence of the night. They
were journeying nearly due north, and so far they had got on quite a
couple of miles without a horse uttering its shrill neigh, and it was
possible that by now, silent as was the night, their cry might not reach
the keen ears of their enemies, but all the same, the party proceeded as
cautiously as possible, and beyond an order now and then given in a low
voice, there was not a word uttered.

It was hard work, too, for, proceeding as they were in comparative
darkness, every now and then a horse would place its hoof in the burrow
of some animal, and nearly fall headlong. Then, too, in spite of all
care and pioneering, awheel of the waggon would sink into some hollow or
be brought heavily against the side of a rock.

Sometimes they had to alter their direction to avoid heavily-rising
ground, and these obstacles became so many, that towards morning they
came to a halt, regularly puzzled, and not knowing whether they were
journeying away from or towards their enemies.

"I have completely lost count, Bart," said the Doctor.

"And if you had not," replied Bart, "we could not have gone on with the
waggon, for we are right amongst the rocks, quite a mountain-side."

"Let's wait for daylight then," said the Doctor peevishly. "I begin to
think we have done very wrong in bringing a waggon. Better have trusted
to horses."

He sighed, though, directly afterwards, and was ready to alter his
words, but he refrained, though he knew that it would have been
impossible to have brought Maude if they had trusted to horses alone.

A couple of dreary hours ensued, during which they could do nothing but
wait for daybreak, which, when it came at last, seemed cold and blank
and dreary, giving a strange aspect to that part of the country where
they were, though their vision was narrowed by the hills on all sides
save one, that by which they had entered as it were into what was quite
a horse-shoe.

Joses and Bart started as