THE situation of the trapper was perilous in the extreme, for it was to be supposed that the Apaches, after the loss of one of their number, would maintain unremitting watch of the only avenue through which anyone could enter or leave the building; but he remained in a stooping posture for several minutes, passing his hands back and forth over the ground, until he had several times covered the space in front of the door.

Finally, with a muttered exclamation, he stood erect, and was ready to start toward his friends, a long way off on the elevation where he had left them hours before.

His keen ear, trained to wonderful fineness by his years of life in the wilderness, caught the footfalls of a horse, which he knew at once was ridden by one of the Apaches. Instead of moving off, or attempting to re-enter the[321] building, he remained upright, with his back against the structure. Had there been a corresponding figure on the other side of the door, a person observing the two from a brief distance would have declared they had been carved and set there scores of years before.

The Indian rode up within sight, and halted a moment while he gazed at the front of the structure. Nothing was easier than for the trapper to tumble him from his pony, but he was too wise to summon the band by doing so. He gazed at him in turn, content to let him alone as long as he did not disturb him.

The Apache must have felt that he was in danger of drawing a shot from one of the upper windows, for he quickly wheeled his steed and rode off in the darkness.

He was hardly out of sight when Eph moved straight out from the building. If Rickard or his companion were on the watch they must have wondered at the sight, though it was explainable on the ground that the trapper was waiting a favorable opening to run the gauntlet.

Instead of crawling, the veteran broke into[322] his loping trot, which was speedier than it appeared. The moon had risen, and though it was at his back he feared the result of the exposure to its additional light.

In no way can the success of Eph be explained other than on the ground that it was one of those pieces of extremely good fortune which sometimes attend rash enterprises on the part of a cool-headed man. He heard the sound of galloping horses, and twice caught their shadowy outlines, but he was on the alert, and, dropping to the earth, waited until the peril passed. In both cases the red men came no nearer, and he was soon advanced so far that he believed the worst was over. He straightened up once more, and, as I have shown, strode directly forward to the elevation, where all three of his friends were awaiting his coming with an anxiety that cannot be understood by one not similarly situated.

The little party listened to his story with breathless interest, Herbert being the first to speak at its conclusion.

“That’s just like Nick,” he said; “he has been waiting his chance all these days and[323] nights, and when those men had no suspicion of what he intended, he has given them the slip.”

“I don’t have much opinion of that younker,” said the old trapper curtly.

“Why not?”

“The most foolishest thing he could do was to ride out of that building just as it ‘pears he has done. If he had stayed thar the whole thing war fixed, but now whar ar you?”

“If he has fallen into the power of Kimmaho or any of his party,” said Strubell, “it will take more than a thousand dollars to get him back.”

“What do you suppose they will demand?” inquired Herbert, his fears aroused again.

“They won’t ask anything,” said Lattin; “the Apaches don’t deal in the ransom bus’ness as much as some other folks.”

“But you talk as though he is a prisoner of theirs.”

“If he is alive, what else can he be?”

“He was well mounted and might have escaped on horseback.”

[324]

“If that had been the case,” added the elder Texan, “we couldn’t have helped knowing it.”

“But there was no noise when Eph met the Apaches except the report of his pistol.”

“We have been listening so closely here, except when I was asleep, that we noticed the tramp of the Apaches’ ponies even when they were walking; if Nick rode off at full speed we must have heard the sounds, because they would have been much louder.”

“Suppose on leaving the b............