because I know you'll do it."

He stretched himself out, folded between his blankets, and was soon
asleep. The horses tethered to a lonesome yucca found a few blades of
grass on the swell, which they cropped luxuriously. Then they lay down.
Ned walked about for a long time rifle on shoulder. It turned colder and
he wrapped his serape around his shoulders and chest. Finally he grew
tired of walking, and sat down on the ground, holding his rifle across
his lap. He sat on the highest point of the swell, and, despite the
night, he could see a considerable distance.

His sight and hearing alike were acute, but neither brought him any
alarm. He tried to reconstruct in his mind the Lipan mode of procedure.
With the coming of the night and the disappearance of the fugitives from
their sight they would spread out in a long line, in order that they
might not pass the two without knowing it, and advance until midnight,
perhaps. Then they, too, would rest, and pick up the trail again in the
morning.

Ned did not know that time could be so long. He had not been watching
more than three or four hours, and yet it seemed like as many days. But
it was not long until dawn, and then it would be time for them to be up
and away again. The horses reposed by the yucca, and, down the far side
of the swell, close to the bottom of the dip, was another yucca. Ned's
glance wandered toward the second yucca, and suddenly his heart thumped.

There was a shadow within the shadow of the yucca. Then he believed that
it must be imagination, but nevertheless he rose to his feet and cocked
his rifle. The shadow blended with the shadow of the yucca just behind
its stern, but Ned, watching closely, saw in the next instant the two
shadows detach and separate. The one that moved was that of a Lipan
warrior, naked save for the breech-cloth and horrible with war paint.
Ned instantly raised his rifle and fired. The Lipan uttered a cry and
fell, then sprang to his feet, and ran away down the dip. In answer to
the shot came the fierce note of the war whoop.

"Up, Obed, up!" cried Ned. "The Lipans are coming down upon us. I just
shot at one of them in the bush!"

But Obed was up already, running toward the alarmed horses, his blankets
under one arm and his rifle under the other. Ned followed, and, in an
instant, they were on their horses with their arms and stores. From the
next swell behind them came a patter of shots, and, for the second
time, the war cry.