Be that as it may, before Fred Munson fairly suspected it he found himself alone with another mounted Apache, both the others having vanished as effectually as if the ground had opened and swallowed them up.

“Now is my chance, if I could only get an opening,” was the truthful conclusion of the lad, whose heart suddenly beat with an awakened hope.  “If I can manage to get this old fellow off, or if I could steal a little march on him, so as to gain a chance, I could escape.  Anyhow, I’m going to try it,” he added, and his boyish heart was fired with a renewed determination to make a desperate leap for liberty.

One Apache, however, if he attended to his business, could guard him as effectually as a dozen, and it all depended upon the disposition this warrior should manifest.  Just now his great and all absorbing interest was in the efforts of his comrades to detect the meaning of the signal fire.

Fred sat behind him upon the horse, and he stealthily looked to the right and left, in the hope of detecting some place which offered an opportunity for concealment, for he felt that there would be but the single chance offered him.  If he should fail in that, the savages would guard him too closely to permit a second effort.

The ravine at this place was about a hundred feet in width.  The sides sloped abruptly downward, growing nearly perpendicular further ahead, so that the Apaches, if caught in any trap at all, would be caught in the worst possible manner.  Hence the extreme caution they displayed before committing themselves.

There were rocks and stones on the right and left, and here and there some stunted vegetation.  A few minutes start would give any one a chance to hide, but just there was the whole difficulty.  How was the start to be obtained?  It seemed, at this juncture, as if the fates were unusually propitious.  Everything conspired to invite the attempt which the boy was so anxious to make.

Waukko and his companion had not been gone more than ten minutes when one of them signaled to the Indian left behind.  It came in the shape of a soft low whistle, which could easily be mistaken for the call of a bird.  The horseman started and turned his head sidewise to listen the instant it fell upon his ear, and this caused Fred to notice it.  The Indian held his head a moment in the attitude of deep attention, and then he replied in precisely the same manner without turning his head.  A full minute passed.  Then a second call was heard, emitted in precisely the same manner as before.  This was the one which did the business.

The trained ear of the veteran scout could have detected no difference that had been made, but there was, for all that, and a very wide one, so far as meaning was concerned.  The red-skin had no sooner caught it than he dismounted and moved carefully forward, his mustang quietly following him, bearing the lad upon his back.