“I can make out the horsemen quite plainly, but that is all.”
“I seed ’em two hours ago and have been watching ’em ever since.”
“That Express Rider that went by will run into them.”
“No, he won’t; he ain’t such a fool; he’ll make a big sneak to the left and get past ’em; if it was among the mountains, he wouldn’t have half the chance, but he knows what to do and he’ll do it, as sure as ye are knee high to a grasshopper.”
“Why do they keep so far from us?” asked Alden.
“They don’t want us to see ’em, and they hain’t any idee that we do, but,” chuckled the guide, “they don’t know old Shagbark has charge of these folks.”
The old man seemed vastly pleased, and his massive shoulders bobbed up and down for a minute, while he puffed hard at his pipe.
“Do you think they intend to bother us?” asked Alden.
“No; I don’t think; I know it; we ain’t through with ’em; if they don’t pay us a visit to-night, we shall hear of ’em to-morrer night as sure as a gun.”
“Why don’t they make an open attack, as I have been told the Indians often do?”