Everything thus far done by one was duplicated by the other, and the two were once more crouching behind the rock, each debating with himself how best to end a situation, which, to say the least, was extraordinary in more than one respect.
Lieutenant Decker now resorted to a daring proceeding that was characteristic of the man. It has been said that boulders were all around him. Less than a rod to his right was another, perhaps half the size of the one he had been about to climb. Hesitating hardly a moment, he took several rapid steps, crouching low, and whisked behind the new shelter. Had the Apache suspected anything of the kind, he would have possessed a fatal advantage, for what better target can a man ask than a fleeing foe only a few yards away? But he could not know it, unless he happened to be peering around the rock at the critical moment, and he was not doing anything of that nature.
A creepy feeling came over the officer, during the moment he was gliding across the open space, such as a man feels who expects to hear the report of a weapon and feel the sting of a bullet. He flung himself behind the new shield with a feeling of inexpressible relief.
“By George!” he exclaimed, as he looked cautiously out; “I forgot my rifle!”
Sure enough, there it stood in plain sight, leaning against the big boulder, within easy reach of his enemy, should he attempt to seize it.
“But he can’t do it without giving me a chance to wing him,” muttered the officer, fully resolved to avert the catastrophe.
The one comforting fact about the situation was that the white man had improved matters and gained an unquestionable advantage. The Apache could not know of the change, and any attempt to locate his foe, without knowing he had left the immediate vicinity of the larger boulder, would expose the warrior to the shot that was awaiting him.
The new position of Decker gave him a view not only of the side where he had been crouching, but of the upper end, just as a person can see two sides of an oblong box from a certain point of view—a fact which it was not to be supposed was known to the warrior, who was, therefore, in danger of exposing himself to a shot from an unexpected quarter. Better still, he could not climb the rock without also showing himself and offering the fairest kind of a target.
All this tended to make the lieutenant much more comfortable, though the feeling would have been more marked could he have laid hand on the rifle.