But Applehead stopped him as he was leveling his rifle.
"If yuh shoot," he pointed out, "they'll know jest where we air and how fast
we're gittin' outa here. If yuh don't, unless their lookout kin see us movin'
out, they got t' do a heap uh guessin' in the next few minutes. They only got
one chancet in three uh guessin' right, 'cause we might be camped in one spot,
'n' then agin we might be crawlin' up closer, fer all they kin tell."
If they were guessing, they must have guessed right; for presently the four
heard faint yells from behind them, and Applehead crawled up the bank to where
he could look out across the level. What he saw made him slide hastily to the
bottom again.
"They've clumb down and straddled their ponies," he announced grimly. "An'
about a dozen is comin' down this way, keepin' under cover all they kin. I
calc'late mebby we better crawl our bosses 'n' do some ridin' ourselves,
boys." And he added grimly, "They ain't in good shootin' distance yit, 'n'
they dassent show theirselves neither. We'll keep in this draw long as we kin.
They're bound t' come careful till they git us located."
The footing was none the best, but the horses they rode had been running over
untracked mesaland since they were bandy-legged colts.
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