“They certainly couldn’t unless they had a long rest, and here we stay.  There need be no secrets between you and me, Ned, about this pursuit.  I think it’s likely that we’ll have a fight in the morning, and we might as well choose our fort.”

The horses were panting and both now limped badly.  It was quite evident that they were spent.  Beyond the pool was a tiny valley or glade with a good growth of grass, and, after tying the reins to the pommels of the saddles, they released the two faithful beasts there.  Obed thought once of tethering them but he reflected that to do so would make them sure targets of the Indian bullets or arrows.  They, too, deserved a chance to escape.

Then he and Ned looked around for the fort, of which they had spoken, and they found it beyond the pool in an opening which would have been called a little prairie in the far north.  In the center of this opening grew a rather thick cluster of trees, and there was some fallen wood.  A rifle bullet would not reach from any point of the forest to the cluster.

They drew up all the fallen wood they could find, helping to turn the ring of trees into a kind of fortification, refilled their water bottles from the pool, and sat down to wait, with their rifles and pistols ready.

Ned felt a kind of relief, the relief that comes to one who, having faced the worst so long, now knows that it has been realized.  The terrible chase had gone on for nights and days.  Always the Lipans were behind them.  Well, if they were so fond of pursuing, now let them come.  By the aid of the dead wood they were fairly well protected from a fire in any direction, and the light was sufficient for them to see an enemy who attempted to cross the open.  There was a certain grim pleasure in the situation.

“They’ve run us down at last,” said Obed, “but they haven’t got us yet.  Before you scalp your man just catch him is a proverb that I would recommend to the Lipans.  Now, Ned, suppose we eat a little, and brace ourselves for the arrival of the pursuit.”

They ate with a good appetite and then lay propped on their elbows, where they could look just over the logs at the circling forest.  It was very quiet.  Nothing stirred among the trees.  Their eyes, used now to the half dusk, could see almost as well as if it were daylight.  Ned finally noticed some dark objects on the boughs of the trees and called Obed’s attention to them.

“Wild turkeys,” said Obed, after a long look.  “The first we’ve seen and we can’t take a shot at them.  They must know it or they wouldn’t sit there so quiet and easy.”

A half hour later, Ned saw something move among the trees at the nearest point of the forest.  It looked like a shadow and was gone in an instant.  But his heart leaped.  He felt sure that it was a Lipan, and told Obed of his suspicion.

“Of course you’re right,” said the Maine man.  “They may have been there in the woods for an hour spying us out.  They’ve dismounted and have left their horses further back among the trees.  Suppose you watch to the right while I face to the left.  I think the two of us together can cover a whole circle.”