plan? Mentally, both Garey and I had
already approved of it, and we promptly signified our approval.

It really promised well. Should we succeed in carrying out the details
without being detected, it was probable enough that within a few hours
we might be safe in the piazza of the rancheria, and quenching our
thirst at its crystal well.

The anticipated pleasure filled us with fresh energy; and we instantly
set about putting everything in readiness. One watched, while the other
two worked.

Our lazoes were knotted together, and the four horses fastened head to
head with their bridles, and secured so as to keep them behind the
boulder. This done, we awaited the falling of night.

Would it be a dark night?

About this we now felt anxious. It was already closing down, and gave
promise of favouring us: a layer of lead-coloured clouds covered the
sky, and we knew there could be no moon before midnight.

Rube, who boasted he could read weather-sign like a "salt-sea sailor,"
scrutinised the sky.

"Wal, old hos!" interrogated Garey, "what do ye think o't? Will it be
dark, eh?"

"Black as a bar!" muttered Rube in reply; and then, as if not satisfied
with the simile, he added, "Black as the inside o' a buffler bull's
belly on a burnt paraira!"

The old trapper laughed heartily at the ludicrous conceit, and Garey and
I could not refrain from joining in the laugh. The guerrilleros must
have heard us; they must have deemed us mad!

Rube's prognostication proved correct: the night came down dark and
lowering. The leaden layer broke up into black cumulus clouds, that
slowly careered across the canopy of the sky. A storm portended; and
already some big drops, that shot vertically downward, could be heard
plashing heavily upon our saddles. All this was to our satisfaction;
but at that moment a flash of lightning illumined the whole arch of the
heavens, lighting the prairie as with a thousand torches. It was none
of the pale lavender-coloured light, seen in northern climes, but a
brilliant blaze, that appeared to pervade all space, and almost rivalled
the brightness of day.

Its sudden and unexpected appearance filled us with dismay: we
recognised in it an obstacle to our designs.

"Durn the tarnal thing!" exclaimed Rube peevishly. "It ur wuss than a
moon, durn it!"

"Is it going to be the quick-forky, or the long-blazey?" inquired Garey,
with a reference to two distinct modes in which upon these southern
pr