the dark. They came pretty near
it, after all, widely as the Apaches spread themselves, and keenly as
they kept up their lookout.

To-la-go-to-de's grand "circuit" would have succeeded, and he would
have dashed in upon the unprotected camp, if it had not been for a mere
dwarf of a young brave who had stolen that opportunity to go on his
"first war-path." He had done so without permission from his elders,
and so kept well away from them, for fear some old warrior or chief
might send him back to camp in disgrace.

Boy as he was, however, his ears were of the best, and he knew the
sound of the feet of many horses. He heard them coming, and then he
knew by the sudden silence that they had halted.

It was just at that moment that the spies of Two Knives came racing up
to announce the suspicious change of direction on the part of the
miners, and the chief was considering the matter.

"Not go back to camp?"

"No," said one of the Lipan braves, pointing toward the south. "All
pale-faces go that way."

"Ugh. Good. Pale-face chief very cunning. Not want to run against
Apaches. Go way around. Get there before we do. We ride."

The Apache boy had not waited for them to start again. He had promptly
wheeled his pony and dashed away through the darkness with the news.

He had not far to go before he fell in with a squad of his own people,
and his work was done. Older and wiser braves than himself, with eyes
and ears as keen as his own, rode forward to keep watch of the
advancing Lipans, while the others lashed their ponies fiercely away to
spread the warning.

Many Bears had no notion of fighting so terrible an enemy with less
than his whole force, and he was in no hurry to begin. Orders were
sent for every body to fall back without being seen, and the Lipans
were allowed to come right along, with the mistaken idea that they were
about to make a surprise. It is bad to try such a thing as that and
then be surprised yourself instead of astonishing anybody else.

The Lipans were moving in two long, scattered ranks, one about a
hundred yards in advance of the other, expecting at any moment to come
in sight of the camp-fires of the Apaches, or to meet some stray scout
or other, when suddenly old To-la-go-to-de himself rose in his saddle,
and sent back a low, warning cry. He had detected the neighborhood of
enemies. He had seen shadowy forms flitting along in the gloom around
him, and he was not sure but he had h