again left
them in darkness, when they almost groped their way down a steep
declivity into a small hollow.

"Can't say how much there is of it, Steve, but this'll do. The Apache
ponies have been cropping this very grass within twenty-four hours.
Look at that."

"I can't see it very well."

"Feel of it, then. Don't you understand such a sign as that?"

"It's only a tuft of grass."

"Yes, but I found it ready pulled off, and it hasn't had time to more
than wilt a little. The man that pulled it was here yesterday."

Murray did not know it, but no man had pulled that grass. It was a
bunch Ni-ha-be had gathered for her pony, and then had thrown at Rita.
Still, the guess about the time of it was nearly right, and that was a
good enough place to rest in until daylight.

"No cooking this morning, I suppose," remarked Steve, when Murray shook
him out of the nice nap he had snatched, wrapped in his "serape," or
Mexican blanket. "No breakfast, eh?"

"You don't know what tales a smoke might tell, or to whom it might tell
'em. Cold meat'll have to do for this time, and glad to get it. After
that, Steve, you'll do the most dangerous riding ever you did."

"Why, are they so near?"

"Can't be many miles. Our first hunt, though, will be for a place to
hide our horses in."

"Why not leave 'em here?"

"I thought of that, but we may need 'em."

Their morning ride was a longer one than Murray imagined, but before
noon he was able to say,

"The backbone of the pass is miles behind us, Steve. All the rest of
the way'll be down hill, or kind of up and down."

"Up and down" it was, but they had barely advanced another half-mile
before Steve exclaimed,

"There they are, Murray!"

"There they are! What a valley it is, too! But, Steve, they don't
mean to stay there."

"A spy-glass? I didn't know you had one! How do you tell that they
won't stay?"

"The glass? It's a double one. Some army officer owned it once, I
suppose. I got it of old Two Knives himself. Nobody knows how it came
to him. Look through it."

Steve had seen such things before, but had known very little about
them. He did not even know how very good a glass that was with which
he was now peering down upon the camp of the Apaches.

"See the lodge-poles lying there--in a dozen places?"

"They've put up some lodges."

"If they meant to stay they'd put up the others. No use for us to go
back. The Lipans are coming along fast enough so