The concealed party well knew why these warriors made no outcry. They could have no suspicion, as yet, that any of the whites who had been driven into the subterranean passage, had escaped. But the latter might have companions watching for a chance to render them aid.
Nearer they came, glancing sharply around, and stepping so lightly that they seemed like moving phantoms instead of living forms. Brom and his companions lay as silently as death, hoping to escape detection by these prowlers. All knew that an outcry or struggle could hardly fail of being heard beyond the bluff, and would at once bring others to the spot. But they held themselves ready for a quick struggle, if it should prove necessary.
The three Indians were several paces apart, and paused every moment in their course, listening keenly. In this manner they passed the little party, who lay so close to the ground that only the closest inspection could reveal them.
Brom, who lay furthest to the right, began to move aside, and the others followed his example. In a moment or two, all were crouched beneath the shelter of a scraggy spruce, under which the Indian spies had already searched. The outlines of the latter could now barely be seen passing around the curve of the bluff; but they did not pass out of sight. As if satisfied that their ears or sight had deceived them, they turned back after a short pause, directly toward the whites.
But the latter had already moved on, nearly in single file, keeping the spruce between them and the warriors. Suddenly a whisper, which they recognized as Rhodan’s, warned them aside. They were in time to dodge behind a protuberance of the bluff as the Indian spies loomed into view between them and the spruce.
“Don’t show a limb!” whispered Scarred Eagle. “Ef I move, all on ye foller, an’ be sure to use no weepons unless they see us first. These ’ere mustn’t be allowed to make an outcry.”
A few seconds after the delivery of this order, the spies came on boldly. They were passing a yard or two below the party, when they suddenly halted and gazed out over the water. Looking downward, they could distinguish nothing; but they had heard some sound, as of a body moving through the water. They at once glided down close to the edge of the shore.
Scarred Eagle had also heard the slight sound, and well knew it was Mace swimming forward and pushing a log before him. The sound had ceased now, and he felt sure the latter was aware of the presence of the three warriors. Had they discovered him?
They squatted down close to the water and remained motionless. Minute after minute passed, and still they moved not. The hearts of the rangers began to beat wildly. At any moment their absence from the cave might be discovered, when the entire bluff would be surrounded and searched closely. And in a little more than an hour it would be light!
“We kain’t wait longer, nor we kain’t avoid a tussle with these chaps below us,” whispered Rhodan to Brom. “It’s Mace out thar, with a log brought from across the angle of water. The hull of us must steal onto them chaps. Pass word to the rest, an’ remember we must take ’em without raisin’ an alarm, or lose the lives we’ve brought so fur out o’ the jaws o’ death!”