"I will take your rifle, Tonio," Sancho said. "I must either have that or a bow and arrow. Now, good-bye!"
Without another word he turned and strolled away towards the hacienda. It was nearly two hours before he returned.
"The señorita has got away so far," he said. "The red-skins came across her half-way up the valley; she turned and rode straight up; a dozen well-mounted men were sent after her. I heard that they sent so many because they were afraid that they might fall in with a party of the Genigueh Indians, who would certainly attack them at once."
"Thank God!" Will exclaimed fervently. "There is a chance of saving her, after all, for if they overtake her—and they won't do that for some time—we can attack them as they come back again."
"Now let us join the others at once, and make up the valley."
During the time Sancho had been away he had been questioning Antonio as to the extent of the valley.
"It goes a long way into the heart of the mountains, señor, but none of us know it beyond what we have learned from the Indians, for we were strictly forbidden to go beyond the boundary for fear of disturbing the game in the Indian country. They say that it runs three hours' fast riding beyond our bounds. After that it becomes a mere ravine, but it can be followed up to the top of the hill, and from there across a wild country, until at last the track comes down on a ford on the Colorado. From there there is a track leading west at the foot of the San Francisco Mountain, and coming down on the Little Colorado, close to the Moquis country."
"How far would that be from here?" Will asked.
"I have never been across there, señor, and I doubt whether any white man has—not on that line. I should think that from what the Indians say it must be some fifty miles from the end of our part of the valley to the ford of the Colorado, and from there to the Little Colorado it must be one hundred and fifty miles in a straight line, perhaps two hundred by the way the track goes—that is to say, if there is a track that anyone can follow. These tracks mostly run pretty straight, so that I should say that it would be about as far to the Moquis country as it would be to San Diego from here; however, we may be sure that we are not going to make such a journey as that; the Apaches are not likely to follow her farther than the end of this valley, or at most to the Colorado ford."
As they rode along Will learned from Sancho how he had obtained the news.