“If he wasn’t the price wouldn’t be worth the slave trader’s valuable time,” commented Pike.
The Indian girl made a quick gesture of warning, just a sweep outward of her hand along the ground. She didn’t even look at them, but down the arroya, the trail they had come.
“Caballos, hombres!” she muttered in her throat.
“The kid’s right,––hear them!” said Rhodes, and then he looked at him, and made a strange movement of eyes and head to direct the attention back of her in the thicket of cactus and squat greasewood. He did not look at once, but finally with a circular sweep of the locality, he saw the light glint on a gun barrel along the edge of a little mesa above them.
“Nice friendly attention,” he observed. “Someone sizing us up. Time to hit the trail anyway, Cap;––to get through on the grub we have to travel tonight.”
He rose and handed the water bottles to the girl to fill, while he tightened cinches.
“It’s a long day’s trip, Cap,” he stated thoughtfully, “a long day out to Carrizal, and a long one back to Mesa Blanca. I’ll divide the dust and the grub fifty-fifty, and you get out to some base of supplies. I’d rather you’d take Pardner, and keep on going across the line. The trail is clear from here for you, and enough water holes and settlements for you to get through. I don’t think Pardner would last for the back trip, but you can save him by riding at night; the burro and mule are best for us. Here’s the dust.”
While Pike had been talking of crossing the border, Kit had been rapidly readjusting the provision so that the old chap had enough to carry him to the first settlement, and the gold dust would more than pay for provision the rest of the way.
“Why––say, Bub!” remonstrated Pike. “You’re so sudden! I don’t allow to leave you by your lonesomes like this. Why, I had planned–––”
“There’s nothing else to do,” decided Rhodes crisply. “If you don’t beat it with Pardner, we’ll lose him, sure! I’m going to take these Indians back, and you can help most by waiting north of the line till you hear from me. I’ll get word to you at Granados. So, if there should be any trouble with these visitors of ours, your trail is clear;––savvy?”