In a moment afterwards his voice was heard again. 'Hubert, Terence, bring all the guns that are loaded up here at once,--quick, quick!' and then he shouted loudly in Spanish, 'Come in all; come in for your lives!' In another minute they joined him on the tower with Mr. Hardy's long rifle, Hubert's carbine, and their double-barrelled shot-guns, into each of which Terence dropped a bullet upon the top of the shot. Hubert could scarcely help giving a cry. At a distance of a quarter of a mile, Mr. Hardy and Fitzgerald were coming along, pursued by at least a dozen Indians, who were thirty or forty yards in their rear. They were approaching from behind the house, and would have to make a sweep to get round to the entrance, which was on the right, on the side facing the dam. This would evidently give their pursuers a slight advantage. 'They hold their own,' Charley said after a minute's silence; 'there is no fear. Lopez!' he shouted, 'run and see that the outside as well as the inside gates are open.' It has been already said that a low wire fence had been placed at a distance of a hundred yards beyond the inner enclosure, to protect the young trees from the animals. It was composed of two wires, only a foot apart, and was almost hidden by the long grass. It had a low gate, corresponding in position to the inner one. Charley's quick eye saw at once the importance of the position. 'I think you might use the long rifle now,' Hubert said; 'it might stop them if they feel that they are in reach of our guns.' 'No, no,' Charley said, 'I don't want to stop them; don't show the end of a gun above the wall.' Then he was silent until his father was within three hundred yards. He then shouted at the top of his voice, 'Mind the outside fence, mind the outside fence!' Mr. Hardy raised a hand to show that he heard, and as he approached, Charley shouted again, 'Sweep well round the fence, well round it, for them to try and cut you off.' Charley could see that Mr. Hardy heard, for he turned his horse's head so as to go rather wide of the corner of the fence. 'Now, Hubert and Terence, get ready; we shall have them directly.' Mr. Hardy and his companion galloped past, with the Indians still fifty yards behind them. Keeping twenty yards from the corner of the fence, the fugitives wheeled round to the right, and the Indians, with a cry of exultation, turned to the right also to cut them off. The low treacherous wire was unnoticed, and in another moment men and horses were rolling in a confused mass upon the ground.