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Four more days went by very wearily. Our wounds were healing -- for we all were in good condition as the result of our vigorous life in the open air -- but they still kept us in constant pain, and so tended to increase our melancholy. Out in the valley, beyond the mouth of the canon, the Indians maintained their watchful guard. Rayburn tried the experiment of holding a hat and coat out on a pole, standing himself under cover of the rock, and in an instant a pair of arrows went through the dummy; and as one of these came from the right and the other from the left, it was evident that in both directions the valley was picketed.
We were safe enough for the time being, of course. Even should the Indians overcome their superstitious dread and enter the canon -- which was not probable, for they had not even ventured to remove their dead -- they could not possibly make a successful attack upon us in the cave. Behind the breastwork that we had built in the narrow entrance, and armed with our repeating rifles and revolvers, we were absolutely secure.