"That's a good plan," exclaimed Dick. "Let us adopt it, by all means."
Slowly the afternoon wore away, until the sun was lost to view behind the great Rocky Mountains in the west. As soon as the shadows became long and deep Jack Wumble arose.
"Now I reckon we can begin to ride on the back trail," he said, with a shrewd smile on his rugged face.
It was an easy matter to saddle the horse again.
The rest had made the animals as fresh as ever and this was a good thing, as the old miner calculated to ride a long distance between sunset and sunrise.
"I suppose our enemies are watching every move we make," said Tom.
"But I must say I can't catch a single glance of them."
"I thought I saw a speck or two of something over the hill to the south," said Dick.
Jack Wumble nodded. "You are right, Dick, I saw the specks too, and they were men looking in this direction. But they might not have been our enemies."
"If only we had a good field glass," sighed Sam. "I was going to bring one along, but I forgot all about it."
They rode on slowly, the old miner not wishing to reach the fork in the trail until it was quite dark. Fortunately it was clouding up, so that not even the stars would be left to betray them.