till he found where they were going, and then made off to bring his
tribe down on them. It may be that one has been hanging behind us just
in the same way."

"It is a very unpleasant idea," Tom said.

"The redskins' ways aint pleasant," Dave said. "Well, let us be moving
up. The first thing we have got to look for aint gold. There is no doubt
about that being here somewhere. What we have got to look for is if
there is any way out of this hole, because it is a regular trap, and if
we were caught here we might hold the gorge for a long time, but they
would have us at last certain; besides, they could shoot us down from
the top."

They proceeded a few hundred yards up the valley, and then stopped
suddenly on a cleared space of ground. In the center lay a score of
skeletons, some separately, some in groups of twos and threes. The
remnants of the rags that still hung on them showed that they had been
Mexicans. The two lads felt a thrill of horror at this proof of the fate
that had befallen their predecessors.

"Wall," Zeke exclaimed, "that was something like a surprise; there aint
no sign they made a fight of it; they were just caught in their sleep,
and never even gathered, for resistance. Well, well, what fools men are
to be sure. I shouldn't have believed as even Mexicans would have been
such fools as to sleep here without putting a guard at the entrance. I
reckon the redskins must have come down from above somewhere, and so
caught them unawares. Well, let us be moving on."