"Ugh! No good. Pale-faces take care of themselves to-night."
So both of them got what they wanted.
Two Knives believed that by keeping to the right he should make a circuit and surprise the Apache camp, while the miners would be sure to meet any outlying force by riding toward it in a straight line.
Captain Skinner's one idea was to get as far as possible from the Lipans, he hardly cared in what direction. To the "left" was also to the southward, and so he was better off than he had hoped for.
"Go slow, boys," he said to his men. "We must go right across every stream we come to. The more water we can put behind us the better."
The Lipans also advanced with caution at first, keenly watching the distrusted miners until they were hidden from them by the rolls of the prairie and the increasing darkness.
"Cap," said Bill, as they rode along, "why can't we turn now and win back the camp?"
"Yes, we could do it. And win another fight and lose some more men. Perhaps all of us. I'm not in any hurry for that."
The line on which the Captain was leading them slanted away more and more toward the south, but not so much as yet that it need have aroused the suspicions of To-la-go-to-de's keen-eyed spies who were keeping track of them.
They reached a good-sized brook, and the moment they were over it the Captain shouted,