"Lucky for me they didn't follow the first rush immediately with
a second. Now I know to wait for their signal. Six, and
possibly seven of them, are left, and they will storm my works in
two more attempts. Here they come!"

The call again sounded. Six Apaches leaped forward, and from the
rock that concealed the wounded warrior, a shot rang out in
advance of the first discharge from Lane's Winchester. The
Indian's bullet scored the top of the turret, and filled the eyes
of the man behind it with powdered stone. The prospector,
already dazed by his wound, fired wildly, and missed his mark.
Quickly recovering himself, he fired again and again, severely
wounding two Apaches. These lay clawing the ground within twenty
yards of the wall. The four remaining Indians were safely
concealed at the same distance, protected no less by the
fortification than by the loose boulders behind which they
crouched for the final spring. Lane realized the fact that his
next shots, to be effective, must be at a downward angle, and to
fire them he must expose himself.

"This is my finish," he thought to himself. "Better be killed
instantly than tortured. I hope all four will hit me. Good-by,
Jinny"--CRACK! went his rifle. "Good-by, Nance"--CRACK! again.

At the two shots, surmising that the prospector had shot himself
and his horse, the Apaches did not wait for the signal, but
sprang forward and climbed upon the wall before Lane had had time
to mount it. Two of them he shot as they leaped down within the
enclosure. As he reversed his Winchester to kill himself with