three feet deep yet, and it's a good bottom."

It did not seem to get any deeper until he was half-way across, and the
rest were getting ready to follow him, when his horse seemed to stumble
and plunge forward.

There was a splash and a smothered cry, and that was all. Days
afterward an Apache hunter found a stray horse, all saddled and
bridled, feeding on the bank near the spot where he had swum ashore,
but nobody ever saw any more of his rider. He had too many pounds of
stolen gold about him, heavier than lead, and it had carried him to the
bottom instantly.

"Boys," said Captain Skinner, "I'll try the next ford myself. I was
half afraid of that."

Every man of them understood just what had happened, and knew that it
was of no use for them to do anything but ride along down the bank.

There was not a great deal farther to go before a sharp string of
exclamations ran along the line.

"See there!"

"Camp-fires yonder!"

"That's the Apache village!"

"It's on the other shore!"

"Hark, boys! Hear that--off to the northward? There's a fight going
on. Ride now. We're away in behind it."

Captain Skinner was right again. By pushing on along the bank of the
river he was soon in full view of the village, but there was very
little of it to be seen at that time of night.

At the same time, just because he was so near it, he ran almost no risk
at all of meeting any strong force of Apaches. The sound of far-away
fighting had somehow ceased, but the Captain did not care to know any
more about it.

"Silence, boys. Forward. Our chance has come."

He never dreamed of looking for a ford there by the village, and there
were no squaws to find it for him or point it out. More than a mile
below he came to the broad, rippling shallow the Apache warriors had
reported to their chief, and into this he led his men without a
moment's hesitation.

"Steady, boys; pick your tracks. Where the ripples show, the bottom
isn't far down, but it may be a little rough."

A large part of it was rough enough, but Captain Skinner seemed to be
able to steer clear of anything really dangerous, and in a few minutes
more he was leading them out on the southerly shore.

"Now, boys," he said, "do you see what we've done?"

"We've got across the river," said Bill, "without any more of us
gettin' drownded."

"That's so; but we've done a heap more than that. We've put the Apache
village between us and the Lipans, and all we've