He had not parted from me more than a minute, when a dark object out upon the plain attracted my glance. I fancied it was the figure of a man; though it was prostrate and flattened against the ground, just as old Rube had appeared when making his escape!
Surely it was not he? I had but an indistinct view of it, for it was full six hundred yards from the mesa, and directly beyond the line of the guerrilleros. Just then a cloud crossing the moon’s disc, shrouded the plain, and the dark object was no longer visible.
I kept my eyes fixed on the spot, and waited for the returning light.
When the cloud passed, the figure was no longer where I had first noticed it; but nearer to the horsemen I perceived the same object, and in the same attitude as before!
It was now within less than two hundred yards of the Mexican line, but a bunch of tufted grass appeared to shelter it from the eyes of the guerrilleros—since none of them gave any sign that it was perceived by them.
From my elevated position, the grass did not conceal it. I had a clear view of the figure, and was certain it was the body of a man, and, still more, of a naked man—for it glistened under the sheen of the moonlight, as only a naked body would have done.
Up to this time I had fancied, or rather feared, it might be Rube. I say feared—for I had no wish to see Rube, upon his return, present himself in that fashion.
Surely he would not come back alone? And why should he be thus playing the spy, since he already knew the exact position of our enemy?
The apparition puzzled me, and I was for a while in doubt.
But the naked body reassured me. It could not be Rube. The skin was of a dark hue, but so was that of the old trapper. Though born white, the sun, dirt, gunpowder, and grease, with the smoke of many a prairie-fire, had altered Rube’s complexion to the true copper-tint; and in point of colour, he had but little advantage over a full-blood Indian. But Rube would not have been naked; he never doffed his buckskins. Besides, the oily glitter of that body was not Rube’s; his “hide” would not have shone so under the moonlight. No; the prostrate form was not his.