“I saw that yesterday and thought it was intended as a signal.”

“Right.”

“But you don’t think there will be any danger in just going after our guide, do you?”

“Boy, they’ll be letting blood before morning, even if the Government doesn’t drop down on the picnic and clean out the whole bunch of them.  There is sure to be trouble before morning.”

“Thank you,” said Tad, touching his pony;

“Going on?” questioned the horseman.

“Yes; I’m going to fetch Juan,” replied Tad, touching spurs to his pony and galloping away, followed by Stacy Brown.

The horseman sat his saddle watching the receding forms of the two Pony Rider Boys until they disappeared behind a butte in the foothills.

“Well, if those kids ain’t got the sand!” he muttered.

CHAPTER V

 A daring act

“If you don’t want to go with me you may go back, Chunky.  Perhaps one would not be as likely to get into trouble as two.  You can find your way, can’t you?”

“I go back?  Think I’m a tenderfoot?  Huh!  Guess I ain’t afraid of any cheap Wild West Indians.  I’m going with you, Tad.”

“Very well; but see to it that you keep in the background.  You have a habit of getting into trouble on the slightest provocation.”

“So do you,” retorted Stacy.

The ponies had been urged to their best pace by this time.  Twilight had fallen and darkness would settle over them in a very short time now, though a new moon hovered pale and weak in the blue sky above.  Tad knew this, so he did not worry about the return trip.

“We should be sighting the place pretty soon,” he muttered.

“I see a light,” announced Stacy.

“Where?”

“To the right.  Over that low butte there.”

“Yes; that’s so.  I see it now.  You have sharp eyes,” laughed Tad.

“I can see when there’s anything to see.”

“And eat when there’s food to be had,” added Tad.

“Think those are the Indians that wanted to shoot us, Tad?” he asked, with a trace of apprehension in his voice.

Tad glanced at his companion keenly;

“Getting cold feet, Chunky?”

“No!” roared the fat boy.

“I beg your pardon,” grinned Tad.  “I didn’t mean to insult you.”

“Better not.  Look out that you don’t get chilblains on your own feet.  May need a hot mustard bath yourself before you get through.”

They rounded the butte.  A full quarter of a mile ahead of them flickered a large fire, with several smaller blazes twinkling here and there about it.  Shadowy figures were observed moving back and forth, some with rapid movements, others in slow, methodical steps.

“There must be a lot of them, Tad.”

“Looks that way.  I wonder where we shall find the guide.”

Both boys fell silent for a time, and as they drew nearer to the scene pulled their ponies down to a walk.  Tad concluded to make a detour half way round the camp in order to get a clump of bushes that he had observed between them and the redskins.  From that point of vantage he would be able to get a closer view, and perhaps locate the man for whom he was looking.