“Well, let them; I’ll ride on. Cibolo can beat the rocks a shot’s range ahead of me. If they’re ambushed there without him finding them, they’ll be sharper fellows than I take them to be; and I don’t consider them flats, either, the scoundrels! If he start them, I can soon gallop back out of their reach. Here! Cibolo!”
The dog, that had stopped a few paces in front, now came running back, and looked up in his master’s face. The latter gave him a sign, uttering the simple word “Anda!”
At the word the animal sprang off, and commenced quartering the ground for a couple of hundred yards in advance.
Following him, the horseman moved forward.
In this way he approached the point where the two walls converging narrowed the cañon to a space of little more than a hundred yards. Along the bases of the cliffs, on both sides, lay large loose rocks, that would have given cover to men in ambush, and even horses might have been concealed behind them.
“This,” thought Carlos, “would be the place chosen for their cowardly attack. They might hit me from either side with half an aim. But Cibolo makes no sign.—Ha!”
The last exclamation was uttered in a short sharp tone. It had been called forth by a low yelp from the dog. The animal had struck the trail where the yellow hunter and his companion had crossed to the middle of the ravine. The moon had again emerged from the clouds, and Carlos could see the dog dashing swiftly along the pebbles and up the ravine towards the mouth of the cavern!
His master would have called him back, for he was leaving the loose rocks unsearched, and, without that being done, Carlos felt that it would be perilous to proceed farther; but the swiftness with which the dog had gone forward showed that he was on a fresh trail; and it now occurred to the cibolero that his enemies might be within the cave itself!
The thought had hardly crossed his mind when the dog uttered several successive yelps! Although he had got out of sight, his master knew that he was at that moment approaching the mouth of the cave, and running upon a fresh scent.
Carlos drew up his horse and listened. He dare proceed no farther. He dared not recall the dog. His voice would have been heard if any one were near. He reflected that he could do no better than wait till the dog should return, or by his attack give some sign of what he was after. It might, after all, be the grizzly bear, or some other animal, he was pursuing.