And so it came about that Mickey stood quietly by, and permitted the whole
five Apaches to slide down the rope like so many monkeys, while he raised
no hand in the way of protest. Not knowing how many the party numbered, he
could not conjecture how many were left when the five had come down, and
the business stopped for the time, but he knew, as a matter of course,
that they would not enter the cave without leaving reinforcements upon the
surface.

By the time the last man landed, Mickey had moved back to a point a
hundred yards away from where the group were gathered, where he was seated
upon a large rock.

"If any of 'em undertakes to flash a bull's eye in me face, I kin dodge
down behind the same," was the way in which the Irishman reasoned it.

At such a time, and in such a place, the faculty of hearing was about the
only one that could be counted upon, and, sliding softly off the rock,
Mickey applied his ear to the earth. If the Apaches were moving about, the
noise made by their feet was so slight that he could not be certain
whether they were actually branching out and groping for him, or whether
they were the sounds produced by the natural shifting of the feet of a
group of men standing together.

Matters stood thus for some time, when the last Indian suddenly came
through the opening and plumped down upon the ground below, his start on
this journey being such that he was probably considerably shaken up by the
involuntary trip.

"Ye spalpeens must be more careful in coming down-stairs," muttered