Hano explained rapidly in Apache, much of which the Navaho understood. He had scarcely time for more when the swift click of hound nails and the angry bellow of Ruler came out of the night. The dog rushed up toward Hano, barking savagely, tugging along Scotty who was holding back with all his strength on the leash. To a dog all strangers are enemies! “What’s all this, Niltci?” queried Scotty--“Good Lord!” He stopped astounded and stared up at what was evidently a strange Indian on Sid’s horse. “Apache!” said Niltci. “Him come from Master Sid. Say all right. Must come quick.” “Is Sid hurt?” asked Scotty grimly. “No. Him with Apache. Wants us to come quick,” reiterated the Navaho. “Well, I’ll be darned! Keep your eye on him, Niltci--it may be some damned ruse. We’ll take him in to see Big John and see what _he_ says about it,” decided Scotty. Walking on each side of Sid’s pinto, with rifles poised and ready for any treachery, they took Hano back to the camp at Papago Tanks. Big John roused out at their coming and threw a heap of brush on the fire. “Jeemently-ding!--what you got thar!” he called out as the party came in. “An Injun on Sid’s pony!--whar’d ye git him?--Say, fellers, I’m just sufferin’ for the news!” Scotty told him all Niltci had been able to learn from Hano during their march and then added the tale of their own discovery of the Mexicans. “Shore’s a fine mess you’ve got yore old uncle inter!” grinned Big John. “Them greasers is on Cerro Colorado, you say? Waal, _we_ left our tracks on thet li’l hump, too! If it’s that Vasquez, he’s followin’ ’em now--to see whar we went next, sabe? He won’t make fer these here lava diggin’s nohow; he’ll make for Represa! An’ he won’t lose no time over it, either! Then they comes inter the Pass, same’s we done. We’ll meet ’em thar, plumb bright an’ early to-morrow morning. They’ll be ridin’ all night. Thet fire ye saw on Cerro Colorado was jist a guide for night ridin’.” Hano nodded in confirmation. He told Niltci now that he had seen lights moving north across the plain before he left the crater rim. “That settles it!” exclaimed Big John. “We rolls our freight out’n hyar right sudden pronto! An’ it’s goin’ to be a sweet fight, if we don’t git up into the mountains before that bilin’ of greasers comes a-fannin’ and a-foggin’ through the Pass, old-timer!” Dynamic was that decision of Big John’s! The tent came down in a jiffy; the horses were roped and saddled; Blaze was made comfortable up on Sid’s pony, a bed being built for him of every available blanket piled on the folded tent for a base. With Hano leading off through the dark, the cavalcade started at once back across the lava.