The water hole was there, and the water was fresh and cold. Green grass surrounded it. Great cottonwood trees bordered it. But a herd of horses browsed on the grass, and pack mules stamped at a picket line. There were packs and tents, and there were more than twenty soldiers whose only reason for being here was to keep Geronimo away from the water. Geronimo slipped away as quietly as he had come. "Soldiers await," he told Naiche when he had returned to his warriors. "Many soldiers?" Naiche asked. "Too many for us to fight," Geronimo said. Naiche said, "Then we must go." "No. We must loose our horses," said Geronimo. Naiche said, "They will run to water." "They will run to water," Geronimo agreed. Naiche asked wonderingly, "You would give good horses to white soldiers?" "These horses are too spent to serve us any longer," Geronimo said. "Let them go." Tie ropes were slipped. Following the smell of water, the horses were off at a gallop. Geronimo led his warriors forward. He stopped them just beneath the rim of the canyon in which the water hole lay. Again he thrust bits of brush into his headband and crawled forward to look. The thirsty horses had come in and were crowding each other at the water hole. A young lieutenant was ordering his men to mount. A scout whom Geronimo had seen, but whose name he had never heard, was arguing with the lieutenant. "Don't do it!" the scout said. "Don't do it, Lieutenant!" "You say these horses were loosed by Geronimo's men?" the lieutenant asked. The scout said, "Couldn't of been nobody else, an' every horse wears the Pratt brand. Geronimo must of stole them there. I figure we'll find the Pratt ranch burned an' maybe the Pratt brothers dead. But don't dash off in all directions thisaway." "If Geronimo's lost his horses, he and his men are afoot!" the young lieutenant exclaimed. "The only horses Geronimo ever _lost_ was them our scouts or soldiers took away from him," the scout said. "He's turned these loose for some deviltry of his own. An' did you ever try to hunt Apaches when they was afoot?" "No," the lieutenant admitted. "But they should be easy to catch." [Illustration] "'Bout as easy as so many quail with six extry wings," the scout said. "You can't catch 'em." The lieutenant said sternly, "Mount and come with us." "All right," the scout said. "But don't leave no horses here!" "I won't. But we must travel fast so I'll leave the pack mules." "Then leave a guard too." "I'll need every man," the lieutenant said. "S'pose the Apaches come here?" the scout asked. "They won't," the lieutenant said. "They're too cowardly. Geronimo and every last one of his men are running for Mexico. We must overtake them. Geronimo's the last Apache war chief! When he's captured or killed, it will mean an end to Indian wars here in the Southwest! The least I'll get out of this is a captain's rating, and perhaps even a major's!"