"He's gone!" cried Tubby, as the last fluttering letter came from above.
"Yes, and slipped out of sight just as if he meant to come back the same way he took going!" interjected Andy in dismay.
"That's all right," added Merritt. "Don't you see it must have been just a clever little stunt of Rob's, meant to fool the three cavalrymen who are lying in wait down on that depressed route he took going up? He reckons that they've been watching him all this while. So he just made out to have no suspicion that he knew about their game. Trust our Rob for keeping his wits about him! He'll slip around somehow, and leave them in the lurch."
"Say, I hope now none of that outfit can read wigwag work!" Tubby remarked, with a new line of trouble appearing on his usually smooth forehead. "Because then they'd know what I told Rob, and of course they'd change their position so as to cover the ground all along."
"Not one chance in a thousand that a single Federal ever took a lesson in signal work with the flags," Merritt told him. But evidently he was not so wholly free from fears himself, for immediately afterward he went on to say: "Perhaps I'd better be hunting Lopez up and telling him all that's happened. Out of gratitude for what Rob has done to save them from being taken by surprise, these rebels may consent to make a little sortie and chase the three fellows up there away."
"A splendid idea, Merritt!" declared Andy, while Tubby burst out:
"Gee! but wouldn't it be just glorious to turn the tables on that lot and send them flying over the hill? Hurry up, and see if you can't get our rebel friends to make a start. They could charge right up that hill and scare the ambushers off like hot cakes. Go along, Merritt, and don't let the grass grow under your feet!"
Merritt was off even while Tubby spoke. He was something like Rob, for whenever he had an idea he believed in carrying it out with speed. In this case it was essential that no time should be lost, for at any minute one of the armed men who lay there in wait for Rob might find an opportunity to get a shot at him, with a result that neither Tubby nor Andy dared allow themselves to consider.
Both of them continued to stand there, keeping their eyes glued on the side of the rise, at about the spot where they knew the soldiers lay hidden. More than a few times one or the other believed he could detect some slight movement, as though the men might be taking an observation; but the distance was so great they could not be sure, and no doubt their fears magnified many things.
"He's found Lopez, and is talking to him right now!" Andy said, referring to Merritt, after a little time had elapsed.