“Don’t see why. I knew your pony had been shot under you and I didn’t have any idea how soon you’d get another.”
“That’s true enough. But you were chasing the raider, not he you.”
“Which shows how little you know about it. Having a fresher mount than he, after he stopped firing so that I couldn’t get a line on him, I decided to outride him and be here to greet him.”
“Well, did you?”
“More than I know. He hasn’t come yet—and he won’t if you leave your broncho out there where any one can see it.”
“I’ll bring him in, but I don’t believe we’ll get a shot at the ornery cuss from this side of the swamp. He’s either beaten you to it or he’s struck the bottoms from some other direction.”
And, as the reader knows, this is just what the Midnight Raider had done.
After making his pony fast close beside Deadshot’s, Ki Yi climbed into a neighboring sapling, and together they watched until about nine o’clock, when they agreed their quarry had given them the slip, and they descended to have a bite to eat.
This finished, they discussed whether or not they should do some scouting on their own hook while waiting for the rest of the outfits to come up, finally abandoning the idea in the fear that the horsemen might not find their trails and enter the swamp at some other point.
And well for the ranch owners was it that they did!