Page:Edward Ellis--Alden the Pony Express Rider.djvu/89

 body round so that his back was toward the open plain, he could use his other elbow and the relief was pleasant.

“Big idee,” he muttered to himself; “bime by when I git tired. I’ll swing round agin.”

It certainly was a strange pose for a sentinel, deliberately to turn his back away from the field from which danger threatened. Yet that is precisely what Jethro Mix did and his self explanation was not without some force:

“If any ob de Injins try to sneak up, Al will be sure to see ’em; he’ll let me know in time to whirl ’bout and lambast ’em or—git out ob de way myself.”

The neglectful guard found some comfort in another fact: he was gifted with an unusually keen sense of hearing, and believed his ears would tell him as much as his eyes. In the circumstances, however, when it is remembered that absolute silence is one of the features of Indian subtlety, this was the gravest of mistakes.

By and by, Jethro swung back and resumed his first position, shifting his feet again as before. He stood so well toward the front that he could not see his friend, except by leaning