“You need n’t be afraid of my going to sleep,” replied Fred, in a voice of self-confidence.  “I know what the danger is too well.”

With a few more words they separated, and each took his station, the Irishman somewhat consoled by the fact that from where he stood he was able, he believed, to cover the position of the lad.

The moon overhead was gibbous, and there were no clouds in the sky.  Thompson’s place was such that he was close to the river, which flowed on his right, and he had that stream and the prairie in his front at his command.  Mickey O’Rooney, being upon the extreme left, was enabled to range his eye up the valley to the crest of the slope, so that he was confident he could detect any insidious approach from that direction.  Down the valley, on the other side of the settlement, were placed a couple of other sentinels, so that New Boston, on that memorable night, was well guarded.

The position of Fred Munson, it will be understood, was apparently the least important, as it was commanded by the other two, but the lad felt as if the lives of the entire company were placed in his hands.

“Talk of my going to sleep,” he repeated, as soon as he found himself alone.  “I can stand or sit here till daylight, and wink less times than either Thompson or Mickey.”

As every boy feels this way a short time before going to sleep, no one who might have overheard Fred’s boast would have been over-persuaded thereby.  Before him stretched the sloping valley of the Rio Pecos.  Glancing to the right, he could just catch the glimmer of the river as it flowed by in the moonlight, the banks being low and not wooded, while looking straight up the valley, his vision was bounded only by darkness itself.  Carefully running his eye over the ground, he was confident that the slyest and most stealthy Indian that ever lived could not approach within a hundred feet of him without detection.

“And the minute I’m certain its a red-skin, that minute I’ll let him have it,” he added, instinctively grasping his rifle.  “A boy need n’t be as old as I am to learn that it won’t do to fool with such dogs as they are.”

The grove which was guarded in this manner, it will be understood, was nearly square in shape, reaching from the shore of the Rio Pecos on toward the left until the termination of the valley in that direction had been gained.  It had been so plentifully drawn upon for logs and lumber that here and there were spaces from which, several trees having been cut, the moon’s rays found unobstructed entrance.  One of these oasis, as they may be termed, was directly in the rear of Fred, who noticed it while reconnoitering his position.  The open space was some twenty feet square, and was bisected by the trunk of a large cottonwood, which had fallen directly across it.

Being left entirely to himself, the boy now devoted himself to the somewhat dismal task of keeping watch, an occupation that cannot be classed as the most cheerful in which a man may engage.  The excitement and apprehension that marked the first two or three hours prevented the time from hanging too heavily upon his hands, but as the night stole along and nothing was heard or seen to cause alarm, the fear grew less and less, until, like a boy, he began to suspect that all these precautions were useless.