me all along the line. They surely had a lively time. I
expected every minute to feel a knife in my back, but when I
didn't get it then I knew they wanted to bring me in alive, and
that made me fight harder. First and last, we rolled and plunged
all the way from the rim-rock down to the canon-bed. Then one
of the Injins sung out:

"Maria!"

And I thought of that renegade Mexican, and what I'd heard bout
him, and that made me fight harder yet.

But after we'd fought down to the canon-bed, and had lost most of
our skin, a half-dozen more fell on me, and in less than no time
they had me tied. Then they picked me up and carried me over to
where they'd built a big fire by the corral."


Uncle Jim stopped with an air of finality, and began lazily to
refill his pipe. From the open mud fireplace he picked a coal.
Outside, the rain, faithful to the prophecy of the wide-ringed
sun, beat fitfully against the roof.

"That was the closest call I ever had," said he at last.

"But, Uncle Jim," we cried in a confused chorus, "how did you get
away? What did the Indians do to you? Who rescued you?"

Uncle Jim chuckled.