Once or twice they permitted their horses to drink from the water when it was reached, but these momentary halts were all that were made.
It was near the middle of the afternoon, when Waukko, who was the leader of the little group, suddenly showed great excitement, which speedily communicated itself to his companions.

All three of these scamps were sullen and reticent, frequently riding for hours at a time without exchanging a word, so that this excitement meant something.

The three halted simultaneously, and talked loudly and excitedly, so that Fred suspected that some cause for a quarrel had abruptly sprung upon them.
"I wonder if they're wrangling about _me_ ?" was the thought that came to the lad, who immediately recalled the fate of Miss MacCrea during the Revolution, when the two Indians conducting her to Fort Edward settled a quarrel over her by sinking a tomahawk in her brain.
If the present excitement could be quelled only by such a remedy, he preferred that it should go on.

Otherwise, if there was a prospect of their settling it by falling upon each other, he was in hope of seeing it intensified.

It looked as if a deadly fight were impending, when he was tossed to the ground, and the three Apaches instantly dropped to the earth and faced each other..