"Ugh! Good. Stay with camp. Lodge ready. Lipans never get near camp. All safe."
Many Bears was thinking of Murray's assertion that his enemies would surely come to attack him, and he did not intend to let them get by him in the dark. They came pretty near it, though, widely as the Apaches spread themselves, and keenly as they kept up their look-out. To-la-go-to-de's grand "circuit" would have succeeded, and he would have dashed in upon the unprotected camp, if it had not been for a mere dwarf of a young brave who had stolen that opportunity to go on his "first war-path." He had done so without permission from his elders, and so kept well away from them for fear some old warrior or chief might send him back to camp in disgrace. Boy as he was, however, his ears were of the best, and he knew the sound of the feet of many horses. He listened for a moment, and then he knew by the sudden silence that they had halted.
This was the moment that the spies of Two Knives came racing up to announce the suspicious change of direction on the part of the miners, and the chief was considering the matter.
"Not go back to camp?"
"No," said one of the Lipan braves, pointing toward the south. "All pale-faces go that way."
"Ugh! Good. Pale-face chief very cunning. Not want to run against Apaches. Go way around. Get there before we do. We ride."
The Apache boy had not waited for them to start again. He had promptly wheeled his pony, and dashed away through the darkness with the news. He had not far to go before he fell in with a squad of his own people, and his work was done. Older and wiser braves than himself, with eyes and ears as keen as his own, rode forward to keep watch of the advancing Lipans, while the others lashed their ponies and darted away to spread the warning.
Many Bears had no notion of fighting so terrible an enemy with less than his whole force, and he was in no hurry to begin. Orders were sent for everybody to fall back without allowing themselves to be seen, and the Lipans were allowed to come right along, with the mistaken idea that they were about to make a surprise. They moved in two long scattered ranks, one about a hundred yards in advance of the other, when suddenly old To-la-go-to-de himself rose in his saddle, and sent back a low warning cry.
He had seen shadowy forms flitting along in the gloom around him, and he was not sure but he had heard the beat of hoofs upon the sod. In half a minute after, he had uttered the warning cry which so suddenly halted his warriors, he was quite sure he heard such sounds, and a great many others.
First came a scattering but hot and rapid crash of rifle firing; then a fierce chorus of whoops and yells; then, before the two ranks of Lipans could join in one body, a wild rush of shouting horsemen dashed in between them. There was a twanging of bows, a clatter of lances, and more firing, with greater danger of somebody getting hit than there had been at first. Then in a moment Two Knives found his little band assailed on all sides at once by superior numbers. The orders of Many Bears were that the rear rank of his foes should only be kept at bay at first, so that he could centre nearly all his force upon the foremost squad. The latter contained a bare two dozen of chosen warriors, and their courage and skill were of little use in such a wild hurly-burly. To-la-go-to-de and three more warriors even suffered the disgrace of being knocked from their ponies, tied up, and led away toward the Apache village as prisoners.