Believing we were
well out of the range of hostile Indians, I did not object to their
going alone. They passed a considerable distance beyond the growth of
_Cereus giganteus_, over a level stretch covered with knee-high
bunch-grass and desert weeds, without seeing a hare. Pausing on the
brink of a shoal, dry ravine, they stood side by side, and rested the
butts of their guns upon the ground. Just then a shout of "Supper!
supper!" came from the group at the camp-fire.
"Hate to go back without anything," said Frank, so I afterwards heard.
"Strange we can't see a rabbit now, when we saw dozens on the way to
the Tanks."
"That's because we didn't have a gun," said Henry.
"You don't believe the rabbits knew we weren't armed then and know we
are now?"
"Hunters tell bigger stories than that about 'Brer Rabbit.' Not one
has bobbed up since we got our guns."
Suddenly from the flat surface of the plain, not twenty yards from
where the boys stood, where nothing but bunch-grass and low shrubbery
grew, sixteen Indians sprang up to full height, like so many
Jacks-in-a-box.
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