第121章

He crossed the floor carefully, stopping often to listen.At last he heard a rustling sound just ahead of him.His fingers tightened upon the revolver he carried in his right hand, by the barrel, clublike.Billy had no intention of making any more noise than necessary.

Again he heard a sound from the same direction.It was not at all unlike the frightened gasp of a woman.Billy emitted a low growl, in fair imitation of a prowling dog that has been disturbed.

Again the gasp, and a low: "Go away!" in liquid feminine tones--and in English!

Billy uttered a low: "S-s-sh!" and tiptoed closer.Extending his hands they presently came in contact with a human body which shrank from him with another smothered cry.

"Barbara!" whispered Billy, bending closer.

A hand reached out through the darkness, found him, and closed upon his sleeve.

"Who are you?" asked a low voice.

"Billy," he replied."Are you alone in here?""No, an old woman guards me," replied the girl, and at the same time they both heard a movement close at hand, and something scurried past them to be silhouetted for an instant against the path of lesser darkness which marked the location of the doorway.

"There she goes!" cried Barbara."She heard you and she has gone for help.""Then come!" said Billy, seizing the girl's arm and dragging her to her feet; but they had scarce crossed half the distance to the doorway when the cries of the old woman without warned them that the camp was being aroused.

Billy thrust a revolver into Barbara's hand."We gotta make a fight of it, little girl," he said."But you'd better die than be here alone."As they emerged from the hut they saw warriors running from every doorway.The old woman stood screaming in Piman at the top of her lungs.Billy, keeping Barbara in front of him that he might shield her body with his own, turned directly out of the village.He did not fire at first hoping that they might elude detection and thus not draw the fire of the Indians upon them; but he was doomed to disappointment, and they had taken scarcely a dozen steps when a rifle spoke above the noise of human voices and a bullet whizzed past them.

Then Billy replied, and Barbara, too, from just behind his shoulder.Together they backed away toward the shadow of the trees beyond the village and as they went they poured shot after shot into the village.

The Indians, but just awakened and still half stupid from sleep, did not know but that they were attacked by a vastly superior force, and this fear held them in check for several minutes--long enough for Billy and Barbara to reach the summit of the bluff from which Billy and Eddie had first been fired upon.

Here they were hidden from the view of the Indians, and Billy broke at once into a run, half carrying the girl with a strong arm about her waist.

"If we can reach the foothills," he said, "I think we can dodge 'em, an' by goin' all night we may reach the river and El Orobo by morning.It's a long hike, Barbara, but we gotta make it--we gotta, for if daylight finds us in the Piman country we won't never make it.Anyway," he concluded optimistically, "it's all down hill.""We'll make it, Billy," she replied, "if we can get past the sentry.""What sentry?" asked Billy."I didn't see no sentry when Icome in."

"They keep a sentry way down the trail all night," replied the girl."In the daytime he is nearer the village--on the top of this bluff, for from here he can see the whole valley; but at night they station him farther away in a narrow part of the trail.""It's a mighty good thing you tipped me off," said Billy;"for I'd a-run right into him.I thought they was all behind us now."After that they went more cautiously, and when they reached the part of the trail where the sentry might be expected to be found, Barbara warned Billy of the fact.Like two thieves they crept along in the shadow of the canyon wall.Inwardly Billy cursed the darkness of the night which hid from view everything more than a few paces from them;yet it may have been this very darkness which saved them, since it hid them as effectually from an enemy as it hid the enemy from them.They had reached the point where Barbara was positive the sentry should be.The girl was clinging tightly to Billy's left arm.He could feel the pressure of her fingers as they sunk into his muscles, sending little tremors and thrills through his giant frame.Even in the face of death Billy Byrne could sense the ecstasies of personal contact with this girl--the only woman he ever had loved or ever would.

And then a black shadow loomed before them, and a rifle flashed in their faces without a word or a sign of warning.