“Suppose we ride parallel with them,” whispered Ned.  “We can go by the sounds and by the same means we can tell exactly what they do.”

“A good idea,” said Obed.  “We are going over prairie which affords easy riding.  We’ve got nothing to fear unless some lamb strays from the Mexican flock, and blunders upon us.  Even then he’s more likely to be shorn than to shear.”

They advanced for some time, guided by the hoofbeats from the Mexican column.  But before the sun could rise and dispel the fog the sound of the hoofbeats ceased.

“They’ve stopped,” whispered the Ring Tailed Panther, joyously.  “After all they’re not goin’ to run away an’ they will give us a fight.  They are expectin’ reinforcements of course, or they wouldn’t make a stand.”

“But we must see what kind of a position they have taken up,” said Obed.  “Seeing is telling and you know that when we get back to Colonel Moore we’ve got to tell everything, or we might as well have stayed behind.”

“You’re the real article, all wool an’ a yard wide, Obed White,” said the Ring Tailed Panther.  “Now I think we’d better hitch our horses here to these bushes an’ creep as close as we can without gettin’ our heads knocked off.  They might hear the horses when they wouldn’t hear us.”

“Good idea,” said Obed White.  “Nothing risk, nothing see.”

They tethered the horses to the low bushes, marking well the place, as the heavy, white fog was exceedingly deceptive, distorting and exaggerating when it did not hide.  Then the three went forward, side by side.  Ned looked back when he had gone a half dozen yards, and already the horses were looming pale and gigantic in the fog.  Three or four steps more and they were gone entirely.

But they heard the sounds again in front of them, although they were now of a different character.  They were confined in one place, which showed that the Mexicans had not resumed their march, and the tread of horses’ hoofs was replaced by a metallic rattle.  It occurred to Ned that the Mexicans might be intrenching and he wondered what place of strength they had found.

The boy had the keenest eyes of the three and presently he saw a dark, lofty shape, showing faintly through the fog.  It looked to him like an iceberg clothed in mist, and he called the attention of his comrades to it.  They went a little nearer, and the Ring Tailed Panther laughed low between his shut teeth.

“We’ll have our fight,” he said, “an’ these Mexicans won’t go back to Cos as fine as they were when they started.  The tall an’ broad thing that you see is a big mound on the prairie an’ they’re goin’ to make a stand on it.  It ain’t a bad place.  A hundred Texans up there could beat off a thousand Mexicans.”

They went a little nearer and saw that a fringe of bushes surrounded the base of the mound.  Further up the Mexicans were digging in the soft earth with their lances as best they could and throwing up a breastwork.  The horses had been tethered in the bushes.  Evidently they felt sure that they would be attacked by the Texans.  They knew the nature of these riders of the plains.