Obed looked also, and his heart smote him.  Older and more experienced than Ned, he knew that with the fierce Lipans the most powerful of all lures was the lure of scalps.  Just as the wolf can trail down the moose at last, they could follow for days on their tough mustangs.  But as he shifted his good rifle a bit he felt better.  Both he and Ned were splendid marksmen, and if the chase were a success for the Lipans there would also be a bitter fight at the end of it.

Now he and Ned ceased to talk, the sun blazed down on the plain, and on sped the chase, hour after hour.

CHAPTER XII

THE TRIAL OF PATIENCE

The hours of the afternoon trailed slowly away, one by one.  Perspiration appeared at last upon the glossy skins of the horses, but their stride did not abate.  The powerful muscles still worked with their full strength and ease.  Ned never felt a tremor in the splendid horse beneath him.  But when he looked back again there were the Lipans, a little further away, but hanging on as grimly as before, still riding in a close group.

Ned began to understand now the deadly nature of the pursuit.  These Lipans would follow not merely for hours, but into the night, and if he and Obed were lost to sight in the darkness they would pick up the trail the next day by the hoof prints on the plain.  He felt with absolute certainty that chance had brought upon them one of the deadliest dangers they had yet encountered.

“It’s growing a little cooler, Obed,” he said.

“So it is.  The evening wanes.  But, Ned, do you see any sign of forest or high hills ahead?”

“I do not, Obed.  There is nothing but the plain which waves like the ripples on a lake, the bunches of buffalo grass here and there, and now and then an ugly yucca.”

“You see just what I see, Ned, and as there is no promise of shelter we’d better ease our horses a little.  Our lives depend upon them, and even if the Lipans do regain some of their lost ground now it will not matter in the end.”

They let the horses drop into a walk, and finally, to put elasticity back into their own stiffened limbs, they dismounted and walked awhile.

“If the Lipans don’t rest their horses now they will have to do it later,” said Obed, “but as they’re mighty crafty they’ll probably slow down when we do.  Do you see them now, Ned?”

“Yes, there they are on the crest of a swell.  They don’t seem to gain on us much.  I should say they are a full mile away.”

“A mile and a half at least.  The air of these great uplands is very deceptive, and things look much nearer than they really are.”

“Look how gigantic they have grown!  They stand squarely in the center of the sun now.”

The sun was low and the Lipans coming out of the southwest were silhouetted so perfectly against it that they seemed black and monstrous, like some product of the primitive world.  The fugitives felt a chill of awe, but in a moment or two they threw it off, only to have its place taken a little later by the real chill of the coming night.  A wind began to moan over the desolate plain, and their faces were stung now and then by the fine grains of sand blown against them.  But as the Lipans were gaining but little, Ned and Obed still walked their horses.