He glanced at her rifle and smiled sardonically. "Don't shoot me."
"Then you'd better start singing out." She glanced at the bay. "How did you know it was yours?"
"I could tell it was shod. The others weren't."
"Was it the Indians? Was your horse following them?"
He gave her a sour look. "Yes it was Indians and he was following them." He checked the saddlebags and tightened the cinch. "Come on, let's get out of here."
With his help she got into the saddle. Her hand touched something sticky and she lifted it to find blood. Her heart skipped a beat.
"Are you hurt?" she gasped anxiously.
"No," he said, rubbing the blood off with a handful of sand. "It's not my blood."
She could feel the blood drain from her face. "Do you think it was Pete or one of the other guys?"
"No, I can vouch for the fact that it was Indian blood. Now shut up and let's get out of here."
He led the horse around and they left the ravine, traveling at right angles to the path the Indians had taken. Apparently he wasn't going to tell her he had killed the Indian to get his horse back. What a weakling he must think she was. Of course, why wouldn't he think so? She had done nothing but cry, complain and faint since this ordeal had begun. Now, with only a few hours sleep, he was walking while she rode. As much as she would like to have offered to walk while he rode, she knew they would cover ground faster if she rode and he walked.
As it turned out, it was her high perch that prevented them from walking into a trap. They were traveling in a sandy ravine when she spotted a flash of color in the distance. She ducked down on the horse.
"Chauncey!" Her voice was barely above a whisper, but he turned. "I saw something red up there in the rocks." She started to slide from the horse.
"Sit still. Act like nothing is wrong."
He lifted a canteen from the saddle horn and took a drink. Casually, he began leading the horse along the ravine again. She avoided looking in the area where she had seen the color, and tried to look undisturbed.
Finally they descended into a low place in the ravine, momentarily putting an outcropping between them and the Indians who waited. Bordeaux lead the horse out of the ravine and behind a slab of rock. There he swung up behind her and they rode away from the area at a fast trot. How long would the Indians wait before they realized they had been fooled? The soft sand in the ravine would make it simple for the Indians to detect where they had emerged. Bordeaux had been leading the horse along the ravine to spare its hooves, but it had been a risk that hadn't paid off.