The selection of this low piece of ground as the camp was not wise, however. An enemy could ride to the edge of the low, sloping bluff which surrounded it on three sides and pop bullets over the wagon tops into the enclosure, shooting from one side those who strove to guard the other line of the camp. For days, however, the party had seen no signs of redskins. Small scalping-parties would fight shy of the wagon-train; for twenty well-armed whites were bound to be respected by the Arabs of the plains, especially as the train crew was sure to be armed with the quickfiring guns which the Indians so feared. After the sun set the evening was short, for it was late fall now. The air grew chill; in the midst of the camp the men built a rousing fire, aside from that over which the cook pottered, and around this they gathered and told stories, cracked rude jokes, or basked silently in the warmth of the flames, resting from the toil of the day. So unconscious were they of aught but their immediate surroundings that they did not see several horsemen who topped the nearest rise to the west, and overlooking the camp. It was now deep dusk, but the horsemen were silhouetted against the sky-line so plainly that had any of the freighters chanced to glance that way they must have seen the figures. Only for a moment were they in view, however. The leader of the group spoke sharply, but in a low tone, to his mates, and all pulled their horses about and disappeared quickly beyond the ridge. Later, and afoot, two of the party came again to the summit of the ridge and reconnoitered. The freighters’ camp lay calmly under the starry sky, the fires burning briskly, the mules champing the grass of the plain contentedly, occasionally a laugh or a sharp word echoing across the valley between the calls of the night-birds. The wind wandered down from the heights and shook the canvas covers of the wagons as though trying to arouse the men to the danger that threatened them. Coyotes whined in the distance, sniffing the herd, but too cowardly to advance until on the morrow the freight-train should have passed on. _Then_ they would come boldly in and fight over the scraps remaining. And, perhaps, there would be greater booty for the scavengers of the plains to fight over! The men scouting about the freighters’ camp numbered the unconscious men and noted their arms and how the camp was arranged. There was a high river-bank. The captain of the train had ordered the arrangement of the wagons partly because he was eager to obtain water; but there was a high bank to the river here, and a narrow beach below it. Men afoot could creep down this bank and, sheltered from the camp, approach it and attack from the riverside. Even a sentinel stationed on the very verge of the bank would be little likely to apprehend the coming of such an attacking force, unless he chanced to be expecting it.