"Then what shall we do?" he asked. "If you have any better plan to suggest, out with it."
Tom, however, could think of nothing feasible and was silent.
The boys had pulled their ponies down to a walk and for several minutes none of them spoke.
Of a sudden Blackhawk raised his head, sniffed the air and then uttered a low whinny.
The sound, coming so unexpectedly, scared the lads, and they looked at one another in alarm.
"He smells something," exclaimed Horace in a whisper, as though fearing to speak out loud.
The boys were in the lowland between two crests of the rolling plains.
"Perhaps it's the cattle. They may be on the other side of that rise in the plains," returned Larry.
Anxiously the three boys gazed toward the crest. The thought that they might be close upon the very men they were chasing startled them, and they were at a loss as to the best thing to do.
"If it is the raiders and the cattle Blackhawk scented, then they'll be on the lookout for us," murmured Tom. "They could hear that whinny for——"