The warrior glanced backward only once, to satisfy himself that his steed was there, and understood what was required of it.  In the meantime, the heart of Fred was throbbing painfully with hope.  He felt as if Providence was interfering directly in his behalf.

“Now is my time,” he added, a moment later.

CHAPTER XV A LEAP FOR LIBERTY

It seemed that nothing could be more favorable for the attempt to escape.  There was Fred seated upon the back of a mustang.  His copper colored captors were some distance away at the side of the ravine, while the only Indian in sight was a dozen feet ahead with his back toward him.  True, there was the risk of being shot, but he felt that he did not deserve safety unless he was willing to run that or any risk.

There was a loose rein hanging on the neck of the mustang.  Fred gently pulled it and the beast stopped.  He was walking so quietly that his hoofs made scarcely any sound in falling upon the flinty surface, and the Indian, from some cause or other, failed to notice the cessation of sound until the distance between them had about doubled.

At that instant, the redskin turned his head as quick as lightning.  Fred, who had been washing for that identical movement, whirled the steed about and started him back in the ravine at full gallop, the brute responding gallantly to the sudden demand made upon him.

The fugitive was expecting a shot from the rifle in the hand of the Apache, and he threw himself forward upon the horse, so as to make the target as difficult to hit as possible.  But the Indian did not fire, not only on account of the risk to his favorite mustang, but because it would have been certain to disarrange the reconnoissance upon which Waukko and his companions were engaged.

But the red-skin did not stand in stupid helplessness.  A glance told him everything, and, running with extraordinary swiftness to the nearest mustang, he vaulted upon his back and started in pursuit, putting his animal upon the jump from the first.  The few seconds’ unavoidable delay gave the young fugitive something like a hundred yards start, an advantage which he used every effort to increase, and which, for a brief spell, he succeeded in doing.

Fred’s object was to avoid a regular chase, for he dreaded that in such case the superior knowledge of the country possessed by the Indian would enable him to outwit him at every turn.  Night was close at hand, and, if he could dodge the red-skin until darkness, the lad was confident of escaping him altogether.

For a short distance, the ravine continued in almost a straight line, and then it turned at a sharp angle.  Without attempting to guide the mustang in the least, Fred kept himself thrown forward, with his arms about his neck, while he hammered his sides with his heels, spoke sharply to him, and did everything he could to urge him to the highest possible rate of speed.  The animal whirled about the corner, and, with his neck extended, went down the ravine with almost incredible swiftness—­a speed which was steadily drawing him away from his pursuer, and which would have carried him beyond his reach in a brief time, but for a singular and altogether unexpected check.