“What are those tenderfeet a-doin’ this time of night?” growled Gus Gols, bringing his column to a halt. “They seem to be mighty busy about something.”
“Maybe they have got wind of our doin’s,” said Eph. “I wouldn’t be surprised if they weren’t such tenderfeet after all.”
“I’m goin’ to do a little lookin’ ahead,” remarked Gus. “We’ll hitch our cayuses in the woods, and you boys stay with ’em.”
Then the leader of the gang left them and made his way to the edge of the pines. He stood looking at the hill with the light of the campfire shining on it like a big red star, and the sound of the axes came faint and clear to him. “They sure are getting ready for somebody,” growled the giant, “and I reckon it’s us, but I’m going to find out for sartain. Where’s that gully?” He stalked along until he found it, and then disappeared as though the earth had swallowed him.
Now Juarez had been debating whether to go back and warn the boys that the enemy was approaching, or to find out more of what Gus Gols was going to do before reporting to Jim, the commander of the faithful. After a moment’s hesitation, he decided to go ahead a ways further. At the time he made this decision Gus Gols had just entered the deep gully, and a head-on collision seemed imminent. It was a dangerous situation for Juarez.
However, one thing was in his favor, he was on the alert, and the giant, who was coming down the gully, did not expect to find any of the boys abroad, supposing that they would stay close to camp and not venture forth in the darkness. He was soon to learn that these same boys were not to be trifled with. Juarez was going along quickly, but very carefully, when he suddenly stopped and listened.
He could hear distinctly someone coming down the ravine. Just a few steps ahead of him was a shelf below the edge of the bank. Juarez made a spring and climbed up to the shelf in a jiffy, but he loosened a little dirt that slid down to the bottom of the gully. It made only a little noise, but enough to reach the ears of Gus Gols.
He stopped as though petrified, glaring ahead through the darkness. For five minutes he stood thus with every sense ferociously alert. Then he went forward, but with extreme caution. Every few feet he examined the floor of the gully for the signs of some footprint. Juarez waited like a graven image, hoping that the man, whoever it might be, would continue up the gully; then he would follow and trap him when he reached the hill.
Juarez could not be sure that there was only one. He could hear nothing, but he was certain that the man was very near. Some instinct told him that. Then beneath his eyes a long, bent, stealthy figure crept into view. Gols felt the footprints in the sand of the gully, then he glared up. He saw the stooping figure of Juarez and jumped instantly back around the curve of the bank.
The game was up. Juarez leaped out on the level and made a dash for a boulder a short distance away. Just as he reached its shelter Gols fired, and the bullet zinged from the side of the rock off into the darkness. Then Gols got a surprise, for Juarez fired at a dark bunch looking over the edge of the gully. The bullet breezed his cheek and Gols ducked.