"Someone lighting his pipe."
"Mine too. I believe he's reached the rendezvous and is waiting. What do you say?"
"Wouldn't wander."
"How far away should you say he is?"
"It's pretty hard to judge, but I'd set it at 300 yards."
"You hold the horses and I'll creep up and see if I can get a line on what's doing," Jack suggested.
Bob objected at first but finally, after Jack had positively refused to let him go, gave a reluctant consent cautioning him not to try to get too close.
There was neither tree nor shrub on the prairie to give him concealment but he knew that a man could see but a few feet in that darkness and he thought he could get near enough to overhear a conversation if there was one being carried on. He stopped every few feet to listen and it was not long before he heard a voice.
"Seems ter me he ought ter be gettin' here prutty soon."
It was Los's voice and it was evident that the man was talking to himself. Jack could tell that he was not many feet distant although he could not see him and he decided to wait where he was and not risk trying to get closer. So he stretched himself at full length on the ground and waited. He could hear the other's horse as he moved about feeding on the short grass and, every now and then, the man muttered a few words of impatience.