This quiet was not destined to continue long. The forlorn hope had now
reached midway of the summit--but not, as their leader had fondly
anticipated, without observation from the foe--when the sound of a human
voice directly above warned him of his error; and, looking up, he
beheld, perched upon a fragment of the cliff, which hung directly over
the gorge, the figure of a single man. For the first time led to
anticipate resistance in this quarter, he bade the men prepare for the
event as well as they might; and calling out imperatively to the
individual, who still maintained his place on the projection of the rock
as if in defiance, he bade him throw down his arms and submit.
"Throw down my arms! and for what?" was the reply. "I'd like to know by
what right you require us to throw down our arms. It may do in England,
or any other barbarous country where the people don't know their rights
yet, to make them throw down their arms; but I reckon there's no law for
it in these parts, that you can show us, captain.
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