"Look!" she said. "I did not want to wake you, but the fires have sprung up everywhere. These last ones are right in the pass."
"When did you see them?" asked Hooker, his head still heavy with sleep. "Have they been there long?"
"No; only a few minutes," she answered. "At sundown I saw those over to the east—they are along the base of that big black mountain—but these flashed up just now; and see, there are more, and more!
"Some outfit coming in from the north," said Bud. "They've crossed over the pass and camped at the first water this side."
"Who do you think they are?" asked Gracia in an awed voice. "Insurrectos?"
"Like as not," muttered Bud, gazing from encampment to encampment. "But whoever they are," he added, "they're no friends of ours. We've got to go around them."
"And if we can't?" suggested Gracia.
"I reckon we'll have to go through, then," answered Hooker grimly. "We don't want to get caught here in the morning."
"Ride right through their camp?" gasped Gracia.
"Let the sentries get to sleep," he went on, half to himself. "Then, just before the moon comes up, we'll try to edge around them, and if it comes to a show-down, we'll ride for it! Are you game?"