JUST as night was closing in, an occurrence took place which caused our friends more alarm than anything during the day.

Their position was almost due east of the adobe building, which it will be remembered was about a mile distant. The Apaches, who had been circling about on their ponies in an aimless way, drew nearer the building, until in the gathering gloom they were seen to be only a few hundred yards’ distant.

Suddenly one of their number dashed off with his horse on a dead run to the east. He did not take a course toward the whites, but aimed for the elevation which extended in a southerly direction. It looked as if he meant to learn whether any friends of the little garrison were in the neighborhood.

“If he goes over the ridge,” said Strubell in[249] a low tone, as all eyes were fixed on him, “he must see us.”

He did not pass over, but halted at the top and sat motionless on the bare back of his pony, evidently engaged in scanning every portion of the visible prairie. At this moment old Eph glanced at the animals, a short way behind them, and saw that his horse was in the act of rising. His forequarters were up, and his head raised, after the manner of his kind, when his master spoke sharply and he immediately sank back again.

The action of the steed was as singular as it was unfortunate, and for a minute everyone was sure the discovery had been made. But the action of the Apache to the south left the matter in doubt. He wheeled about and rode back to his comrades at an easier pace, but they did not gather around him, as they would have been quite sure to do if he had borne important news to them.

The result was that neither Bozeman nor the Texans knew whether the Apache had seen them or not—a state of doubt as trying as actual discovery.

[250]

The belief was that the action of the horse had not betrayed them, for, until the red men faded from view in the deepening gloom, nothing to show the contrary was observable.

The night promised to be favorable for the dangerous enterprise. It would be quite dark, the moon not appearing until late, there was no wind, and, in the stillness, the slightest sound could be heard for a long distance. If the Apaches knew nothing of the party behind the elevation, they would be likely to remain on their horses, whose tread could be detected long before they were visible, while the advance of old Eph was to be in such utter silence that even the wonderfully fine hearing of an Apache would avail him naught.

“I’m goin’ to start soon,” said the trapper, “and I want to know what’s to be said to Bell, if I get the chance to talk with him.”

“In the first place,” said Strubell, by way of reply, “Herbert is to fix the price of the ransom he’s willing to pay.”

“What do you think I ought to give?” asked the youth, who had thought a good deal over the question.

[251]

“I don’t know—but it seems to me that a thousand dollars should be the outside figure. What do you think, Baker?”

“Five hundred is my idea, but I wouldn’t think of goin’ above what you say.”

“Why,” said the surprised Herbert, “I had fixed five thousand as the limit, not knowing but that I might exceed that.”

“Don’t think of it.”

“Five thousand dollars,” repeated old Eph, with a low whistle, for the sum to him was a prodigious fortune.

“Well, Eph can figure as best he can, but I will agree that that sum shall be paid, if Rickard will take nothing less.”

“How are you goin’ to pay it? What are the tarms?” asked the trapper, who knew nothing about the forms of “exchange,” as it was proper to term the business in view.

“You can say to him that, if he will send Nick and his horse back to us unharmed, I will give him a draft on Mr. Lord in San Antonio for whatever sum you agree upon. He will understand that. I have the blanks with me, and can fill them in with pencil,[252] which is as legal as ink. Then all he has to do is to hand the paper to Mr. Lord, who will give him the money without question. I will let him have another piece of writing which will insure that.”

It was all a mystery to the old trapper, who had never seen anything of the kind, and perhaps............