nd?"

Her mouth opened and then closed again. The quirt she had half raised to
slash at him, flopped across her pony's neck.

The Apache glanced back at the two men. Hulagur's hand was on his sword
hilt, his eyes darting from one of those silent watchers to the next.
But the utter hopelessness of the Tatar position was too plain. Only
Menlik made no move toward any weapon, even his spirit wand. Instead, he
sat quietly in the saddle, displaying no emotion toward the Apaches save
his usual self-confident detachment.

"We go on." Travis pointed ahead.

Just as suddenly as they had appeared from the heart of the golden
cliffs, so did the scouts vanish. Most of them were already on their way
to the point Buck had selected for the meeting place. There had been
only six men up there, but the Tatars had no way of knowing just how
large a portion of the whole clan that number was.

Travis' pony lifted his head, nickered, and achieved a stumbling trot.
Somewhere ahead was water, one of those oases of growth and life which
pocked the whole mountain range--to the preservation of all animals and
all men.

Menlik and Hulagur pushed on until their mounts were hard on the heels
of the two ridden by the girl and Travis. Travis wondered if they still
waited for some arrow to strike home, though he saw that both men rode
with outward disregard for the patrolling scouts.

A grass-leaf bush beckoned them on and again the ponies quickened pace,
coming out into a tributary canyon which housed a small pool and a good
stand of grass and brush. To one side of the water Buck stood, his arms
folded across his chest, armed only with his belt knife. Grouped behind
him were Deklay, Tsoay, Nolan, Manulito--Travis tabulated hurriedly.
Manulito and Deklay were to be classed together--or had been when he was
last in the rancheria. On Buck's stairway from the past, both had
halted more than halfway down. Nolan was a quiet man who seldom spoke,
and whose opinion Travis could not foretell. Tsoay would back Buck.

Probably such a divided party was the best Travis could have hoped to
gather. A delegation composed entirely of those who were ready to leave
the past of the Redax--a collection of Bucks and Jil-Lees--was outside
the bounds of possibility. But Travis was none too happy to have Deklay
in on this.

Travis dismounted, letting the pony push forward by himself to dip nose
into the pool.

"This is," Travis pointed politely with his chin--"Men