“Either we bring Belle out of here or we stay in ourselves,” Roy whispered, as though to himself. But Teddy heard him, and nodded silently. They would fight—they would die—but they would not be beaten back!
“Almost there,” Nick said in a low voice. “Let’s stick together, boys. We can’t afford to get separated. Roy, suppose you take charge.”
“Right. Now let’s see. Who knows anything about the layout of those caves?”
“I know they set pretty near the edge of the gully, Roy,” Nick answered, in a doubtful voice. “An’ I think you can come at them from either end. But we can’t, ’cause the only way to get to the other side from where we are, is past them. So we’ll have to depend on surprising that gang of rustlers before they know what’s up. Once they discover us, we’ll have to move fast.”
Roy thought for a moment.
“If we only had a few more men! But we haven’t, so what’s the use of wishing? Teddy, some one suggested, a way back, that we send a man on ahead to investigate. What do you think about it?”
“Not much, Roy. If you want me to, I’ll do it; but I can’t see that we’d gain much. They’ve got a guard out—maybe two. I’m pretty sure of that. What we ought to do is to get up on them as quietly as we can, knock the guard off cold, if we have to, then depend on our guns for the rest.” As he spoke the boy’s eyes flashed and he breathed faster. When the time for action came he would be ready to do his part.
“Sounds good to me,” Gus drawled. “Roy, when we start, we got to shoot as we go. I heard the bunch has two New York gunmen along. Well, we’ll see how they like a taste of Western methods,” and he smiled grimly.
“Then it’s settled?” Roy asked, looking from one to the other. “We ride on together. When we get near, we slide off the broncs and nab the lookout, if there is one. Then—what’s in our way we take out! I don’t know how many men they’ve got, but unless it’s an army we’ll go through ’em. All set, boys?”
“All set!”