Suddenly I heard a chorus of grunts from the Indians, and looking in their direction I saw Vic stand for an instant with her forefeet on a prostrate log, look questioningly at the savages, and then drop down into the furze and disappear.

The sight of a white man’s dog, wearing a brilliant metallic collar, produced an electrical effect.  Instantly the redmen sprang to their feet, seized their arms, and began saddling and bridling their ponies.

“Vic has betrayed us, sergeant,” I said.  “We must get out of here as quickly as possible.”

As we sprang into our saddles and regained the trail Vic came with a bound before us, and I immediately gave her positive orders to keep close at our heels.  We rode as fast as it was possible to do without making a noise, hoping that we might get a considerable distance away before we were discovered.  We had not proceeded far, however, when a yell announced that we were seen.

As we galloped on we saw that it was impossible for the Indians to cross to our side of the ravine.  Every mile we passed the path rose higher and the sides of the stream grew more precipitous.  The Indians were pursuing a path parallel to ours and about half a mile in our rear.  What was the nature of the country ahead we did not know.  The fact that they were pursuing, and with such eagerness, seemed to indicate they knew of some advantage to be gained farther on.

On and on we rode, I in advance, the sergeant next, and Frank behind.  The trail wound through the trees and clumps of underbrush, with occasional openings through which we could catch glimpses of our eager pursuers.  The prospect appeared exceedingly gloomy.

As we galloped on I noticed at last, through a rift in the wood a considerable distance in advance, an eminence or butte which lifted its summit nearly three hundred feet skyward, and which presented on the side towards us an almost perpendicular wall.  When we approached it we saw a neat log-cabin nestling under its overarching brow.  We dismounted, led our panting and utterly exhausted animals into the cabin, closed the doors, and went to the windows with our rifles.

The cabin was about thirty by twenty feet in area, and stood with its northern end close against the perpendicular wall of the butte, with an overhanging cliff a hundred feet above it.  If a stone had been dropped from the sheltering cliff it would have fallen several feet away from the cabin’s southern wall.

At the end of the cabin farthest from the butte the ground upon which it stood broke off perpendicularly twenty feet downward, to a spring—­the source of the brook we had been following since we left Jemez.  The only way to cross from one trail to the other, except by going several miles down the brook or to the north end of the butte, was, therefore, through the cabin, and for this purpose a door had been placed in each side.  The cabin could be approached only on the east and west sides, and was unassailable at its north and south ends.