"I will undertake the horse job," Boston Joe said. "As you say, three is
enough here. They will think they are going to take us by surprise, and
as soon as they find we are ready for them they will draw off fast
enough. I reckon that fellow has counted our numbers, and no redskin
will try to force that pass with five Western rifles facing him."

Just as Joe began to mount the path, leading his horse, with the others
tied head to tail in a long line behind it, Tom appeared on the path
high up and shouted:

"Thirty or forty horsemen have just left the village, and are coming
this way."

"All right, Tom," Dick shouted back. "You are not to come down. Joe is
coming up with the horses."

"We have got plenty of time yet," Dave said, as soon as the string of
horses had started on their way up; "it aint much past two o'clock yet,
and it will be pretty nigh six hours afore we can make a start. There is
a good fire, and we have kept down thirty pounds of flour; we shall have
time to bake that into bread before we start. We shan't have much time
for baking when we are once off, you can bet your boots."

Dick looked on with some wonder at the quiet and deliberate manner in
which Dave mixed his dough.

"By the way, Dick," the latter said, looking up, "we have divided that
lot of gold we got here ourselves into five lots, and put one lot into
the blankets on each of our riding horses; it is like enough that if we
carry our own scalps back to the Settlements we shan't get any of the