"That time I reckon I fetched won av 'em." "Sweeny," said Thurstane, "you must have hit either the sun or the moon, I don't know which." Sweeny looked discomfited; the next breath he bethought himself of a saving joke: "Liftinint, it 'ud sarve erry won av 'em right;" then another neigh of laughter.
"I ain't afeard av the ball," he hastened to asseverate; "it's the kick av it that murthers me.

Liftinint, why don't they put the britch to the other end av the gun?
They do in the owld counthry." "Load your beece," ordered Sergeant Meyer, "and go to your bost again, to the left of Shupert." The fact of Sweeny's opening fire did not cause a resumption of the close fighting.

Quiet still continued, and the leaders of the expedition took advantage of it to discuss their situation, while the Indians gathered into little groups and seemed also to be holding council.
"There are over a hundred warriors," said Thurstane.
"Apaches," added one of the Mexican herdsmen.
"What band ?" "Manga Colorada or Delgadito." "I supposed they were in Bernalillo." "That was three weeks ago," put in Coronado.
He was in profound thought.

These fellows, who had agreed to harry Bernalillo, and who had for a time carried out their bargain, why had they come to intercept him in the Moqui country, a hundred and twenty miles away?
Did they want to extort more money, or were they ignorant that this was his train?
And, supposing he should make himself known to them, would they spare him personally and such others as he might wish to save, while massacring the rest of the party?
It would be a bold step; he could not at once decide upon it; he was pondering it.
We must do full justice to Coronado's coolness and readiness.

This atrocious idea had occurred to him the instant he heard the charging yell of the Apaches; and it had done far more than any weakness of nerves to paralyze his fighting ability.