To the left glittered the river; but the trail did not turn in that direction; it led straight at the bluff in the elbow of the current.  The mules and horses followed it in a pack, guided by their acute scent toward the nearest water, a still invisible brooklet which ran at the base of the butte.  Presently, while yet a mile from the stream, they were seized by a mania.  With a loud beastly cry they broke simultaneously into a run, nostrils distended and quivering, eyes bloodshot and protruding, heads thrust forward with fierce eagerness, ungovernably mad after water.  There was no checking the frantic stampede which from this moment thundered with constantly increasing speed across the plain.  No order; the stronger jostled the weaker; loads were flung to the ground and scattered; the riders could scarcely keep their seats.  Spun out over a line of twenty rods, the cavalcade was the image of senseless rout.

Of course Thurstane was furious at this seemingly fatal dispersion; and he trumpeted forth angry shouts of “Steady there in front!  Close up in the rear!”

But before long he guessed the truth—­water!  “They will rally at the drinking place,” he thought.  “Forward the mules!” he yelled.  “Steady, you men here!  Hold in your horses.  Keep in rear of the women.  I’ll shoot the man who takes the lead.”

But even Spanish bits could do no more than detain the horses a rod or two behind the beasts of burden, and the whole panting, snorting mob continued to rush over the loamy level with astonishing swiftness.

Meanwhile the leading Apaches, not now more than fifty in number, were swept along by the same whirlwind of brute instinct.  They diverged a little from the trail; their object apparently was to overlap the train and either head it off or divide it; but their beasts were too frantic to be governed fully.  Before long there were two lines of straggling flight, running parallel with each other at a distance of perhaps one hundred yards, and both storming toward the still unseen rivulet.  A few arrows were thrown; four or five unavailing shots were fired in return; the hiss of shaft and ping of ball crossed each other in air; but no serious and effective fight commenced or could commence.  Both parties, guided and mastered by their lolling beasts, almost without conflict and almost without looking at each other, converged helplessly toward a verdant, shallow depression, through the centre of which loitered a clear streamlet scarcely less calm than the heaven above.  Next they were all together, panting, plunging, splashing, drinking, mules and horses, white men and red men, all with no other thought than to quench their thirst.