“So am I,” said Obed White.  “My watch says it’s one o’clock in the morning, and my watch is always right, because I made it myself.  We’ve had a pretty good rest, enough to go on, and what we find may be worth finding.  A needle in a haystack may be well hid, but you’ll find it if you look long enough.”

They rode almost due south in the great path made by the buffalo herd, not stopping for a full two hours when a halt was made at a signal from the Panther.  They were in a wide plain, where buffalo grass yet grew despite the winter, and the Panther said with authority that the herd had been grazing here before it was started on its night journey into the north.

“An’ if we ride about this place long enough,” he said, “we’ll find the reason why the buffaloes left it.”

He turned his horse in a circuit of the plain and Ned and Obed followed the matchless tracker, who was able, even in the moonlight, to note any disturbance of the soil.  Presently he uttered a little cry and pointed ahead.  Both saw the skeleton of a buffalo which evidently had been killed not long and stripped of its meat.  A little further on they saw another and then two more.

“That tells it,” said the Panther succinctly.  “These buffaloes were killed for food an’ most likely by Mexicans.  It was the shots that set the herd to runnin’.  The men who killed ’em are not far away, an’ I’m not a Ring Tailed Panther an’ a Cheerful Talker if they don’t belong to Urrea’s band.”

“Isn’t that a light?” said Ned, pointing to the west, “or is it a firefly or something of the kind?”

A glowing spark was just visible over the plain, but as it neither moved nor went out the three concluded that it was made by a distant fire.

“I think it’s in chaparral or among trees,” said Obed, “or we would see it more plainly.  It’s a poor camp fire that hides its light under a bushel.”

“I think you’re right an’ it must be chaparral,” said the Panther.  “But we’ll ride toward it an’ soon answer our own questions.”

The light was more than a mile away and, as they advanced slowly, they saw it grow in size and intensity.  It was surely a campfire, but no sound that they could yet hear came from it.  They did not expect to hear any.  If it was indeed Urrea and his men they would probably be sleeping soundly, not expecting any foe to be near.  The Panther now dismounted, and the other two did likewise.

“No need to show too high above the plain,” he said, “an’ if we have to run it won’t take a second to jump back on our horses.”

Ned did not take the bridle of his horse as the others did.  He knew that Old Jack would follow as faithful as any dog to his master, and he was right.  As they advanced slowly the velvet nose more than once pressed trustfully against his elbow.

They saw now that an extensive growth of chaparral rose before them, from the center of which the light seemed to be shining.  The Panther lay down on the prairie, put his ear to the ground, and listened a long time.