ger."

"You don't expect to walk it, do you?"

They assured him that they had no intention of doing any such thing.
Their horses were secreted in a gorge about three miles distant, and as
soon as they could be reached they would mount them and speed away for
Fort Havens.

"And we'll do it, too, at a gait that'll beat any mustang that Lone Wolf
has ever straddled," added Dick, exultingly. "When a chap goes into the
Injun country, he must fetch the best hoss flesh he can steal."

"But I haven't any horse," said Ned, with a laugh. "What's to become of
me when you're riding?"

Tom explained that there could be no difficulty about that. Such a
trifling additional weight would not be suspected by either of the
animals.

"Where do you suppose Lone Wolf is?" asked the boy, looking furtively
around, unable to free himself of the belief that they were not through
with him yet.

"He's gone back to his party; they've split since you left 'em. About
thirty started yesterday forenoon for the Apache villages to the
south'ard, and the tother twenty are in camp off here a mile or so."

As Tom spoke, he pointed to the west, in among the mountains, and in a
direction at right angles to what he was pursuing himself.

"Our road twists round a little," he added, "and when we get to where we
left the animals, we'll be 'bout as far away from the Apaches as we are
now. What's better, there's some mighty rough travelin' between us and
them, such as no hosses can git over."

"But Indians can, can't they?"

"I rather guess so. What's the matter, my boy?" asked Tom, looking down
upon him as they picked along. "You're talkin' as if you was thinkin'
'bout Injuns all the time."

"That's what I've had to do for the last three or four days. Lone Wolf
managed to get away from you, and where do you think he is? What do you
think he means to do?"

As the boy asked this question, he glanced around in such a timid,
apprehensive way, that his companions laughed. It was natural that the
lad should have these misgivings, especially as it seemed to him that
his friends were using no precautions at all to prevent a treacherous
surprise upon the part of the Apaches. To relieve his fears, they
convinced him that they were on the alert, and did not fail to note
everything.

They expected, in the natural course of events, that Lone Wolf would
make all haste back to camp, and take every means of revenging himself
and securing possession of the boy a