The stars were all out when he awoke, startled by her hand on his hair, but she reassured him with a word and led him up the hill to their lookout. It was then that he understood her silence. In the brief hours during which he had slept the deserted country seemed suddenly to have come to life.
By daylight there had been nothing--nothing but dim figures in the distance and the tracks of horses and mules--to suggest the presence of men. But now as the velvet night settled down upon the land it brought out the glimmering specks of a hundred camp-fires to the east and to the north. But the fires to which Gracia pointed were set fairly in their trail, and they barred the way to Gadsden.
"Look!" she said. "I did not want to wake you, but the fires have sprung up everywhere. These last ones are right in the pass."
"When did you see them?" asked Hooker, his head still heavy with sleep. "Have they been there long?"
"No; only a few minutes," she answered. "At sundown I saw those over to the east--they are along the base of that big black mountain--but these flashed up just now; and see, there are more, and more!
"Some outfit coming in from the north," said Bud. "They've crossed over the pass and camped at the first water this side."
"Who do you think they are?" asked Gracia in an awed voice. "_Insurrectos?_"
"Like as not," muttered Bud, gazing from encampment to encampment. "But whoever they are," he added, "they're no friends of ours. We've got to go around them."
"I reckon we'll have to go through, then," answered Hooker grimly. "We don't want to get caught here in the morning."
"Ride right through their camp?" gasped Gracia.
"Let the sentries get to sleep," he went on, half to himself. "Then, just before the moon comes up, we'll try to edge around them, and if it comes to a show-down, we'll ride for it! Are you game?"
He turned to read the answer, and she drew herself up proudly.
"Try me!" she challenged, drawing nearer to him in the darkness. And so they stood, side by side, while their hands clasped in promise. Then, as the night grew darker and no new fires appeared, Hooker saddled up the well-fed horses and they picked their way down to the trail.
The first fires were far ahead, but they proceeded at a walk, their horses' feet falling silently upon the sodden ground. Not a word was spoken and they halted often to listen, for others, too, might be abroad. The distant fires were dying now, except a few, where men rose up to feed them.