There were several instruments in the party, but none revealed the cause of the assertion made by Mendez. No one, however, doubted its truth.
Regardless of any shots that might be fired from the ridge, the troopers swept up the slope on the qui vive for the battle that seemed at hand.
But it would have been strange indeed had they come face to face with the raiders, who would have thus been forced to fight on something like equal terms.
A mile away, however, to the westward, the whole band was seen riding as if for their lives. Geronimo and his men had no intention of meeting a force that had a fair chance with them.
Lieutenant Decker gave expression to his disappointment.
“We might have known it; they won’t fight.”
“But we can compel them,” insisted Armon Peyser.
“How?”
“Run ’em down.”
“Ah, if we could, but what chance have we of that?”