"Two might stay here and keep the ledge covered while the others went out," suggested Harry, "and play the game that way. With our rifles we'd make things so warm for the bunch they'd hardly dare show themselves. And after the first two got out, why, they could hold the fort for the others. How's that, Ned?" "Not bad," replied the one addressed, "only I'm afraid there may be others near by. I heard some one shout just then, which I take it must be a signal. There goes another yell from across the canyon." "By jinks! I believe we're surrounded!" ejaculated Jimmy, and strange as it might seem, there was something not unlike a vein of gratification in his voice, as though the boy really felt pleased to know they were in for another spell of action. "We're going to have a fight, that's certain!" announced Jack, handling his weapon with nervous fingers, in sharp contrast to Ned's steady ways. "Well, this ought to make a pretty fair sort of a fort, I should think," Harry remarked, as he indicated the slanting rock under which they had crawled, and which sheltered them fairly well from any peril that might be hovering above. "But if they once get up above us in the canyon, and below as well, they could pour in what is called an enfilading fire, and make it mighty unpleasant under our rock mushroom fort," Jack explained. "Which will be apt to happen, sooner or later, if they mean to give us trouble," assented Ned. "Then we'd better get a hustle on and see if we c'n side-step any," Jimmy was heard to remark. "Keep watching, up and down, and shoot at any moving thing you glimpse," Ned told them, as he started to creep further under the shelf. "Where are you going, Ned?" Harry asked, filled with curiosity. "To see what chance there is of our finding a safer refuge than this," replied the scout master. "Somehow, I seem to have a notion that there's a sort of crevice in the canyon wall close by. If it turns out that way and it's big enough for us to crawl in, why, we'll be better fixed to stand that crowd off." "Good luck to you!" Jimmy called after him. "Don't watch what I'm doing, but keep guard in front!" were the last words Ned sent back over his shoulder. A minute later and Jack announced that he believed there was some one moving up amidst some scraggy bushes growing in a spot where earth had fallen down into the rocky cut. "I've got half a mind to send a shot up there and rout him out," he declared. "Cut her loose then," Jimmy told him. "If it doesn't do anything else," Harry observed, "you'll publish plain warning of our intention to fight back and give as good as we take. When they hear the crack of a rifle, perhaps, they'll make up their minds they don't want to bother us as much as they thought they did in the start." So Jack pressed the trigger of his weapon, which promptly went off with a roar, owing to the fact that at the time he was crouching in a confined space under the shelf of rock.