Go ahead. Walk your horses. I'll follow." She swung
herself into her own saddle.

Cora and Nesis started slowly out of the square. Colina followed,
swinging sidewise in her saddle and watching the Indians behind.

None offered to follow directly, but Colina observed that those who had
disappeared around the teepees were catching horses beyond. Others
running out of the square on the other side had disappeared around the
spur of the hill.

Plainly they did not mean to let her take Nesis unopposed.

The girls finally issued from among the teepees and extended their
horses into a trot. Cora rode first, her stolid face unchanged; from
moment to moment she looked over her shoulder to make sure that Colina
was safe. Nesis, blinded with tears, let her horse follow unguided,
and Colina brought up the rear.

Colina's face showed the fighting look, intent and resolute. Her brain
was too busy to dwell on tragedy then.

Rounding the hill, she saw that those who had gone ahead had
disappeared. The horses that had been grazing here were likewise gone.

It was not pleasant to consider the possibility of an ambush waiting in
the woods ahead. Other Indians began to appear in pursuit around the
hill.

Seeing the girls, they pulled in their horses and came on more slowly.
Colina, wishing to see what they would do, drew her horse to a walk,
whereupon the Indians likewise walked their horses.

Evidently they meant to stalk the girls at their leisure.

Colina, like a brave and hard-pressed general, considered the situation
from every angle without minimizing the danger. She had really nothing
but a moral weapon to use against the Indians. If that failed her,
then what?

Night was drawing on, and it would be difficult to intimidate them with
eyes and voice after dark. Moreover, her horses were fatigued to the
point of exhaustion. How could she turn them loose to rest and graze
with enemies both in the front and the rear?

She knew that a favorite Indian stratagem is to stampede the
adversaries' horses after dark. Colina carried the only gun in their
little party.

Striking into the woods out of sight of their pursuers, they urged
their horses to the best that was in them. Colina bethought herself of
profiting by Nesis's experience.

"Nesis," she called, "you know these people! What should we do?"

Nesis, rousing herself and turning her dreadfully eloquent eyes upon
Colina, signified that they must ride on f