Ten more minutes and we broke into a run: there was no
fear now of our steps being heard.
'Done them, by thunder!' Rube said; 'won't El Zeres curse?'
We might have been a mile and a half from the camp, when in the
quiet night air we heard the sound of the howl of a dog. We both
stopped as if we were shot.
'Thunder!' Rube exclaimed furiously, 'if we haven't forgot the
bloodhound.'
I knew what Rube meant, for it was a well-known matter of boast of
El Zeres that no one could ever escape him, for that his bloodhound
would track them to the end of the world.
'There's only one thing to be done,' I said; 'we must go back and
kill that critter.'
'Wait, Seth,' Rube said; 'we don't know where the darned brute is
kept. He warn't up at the hut, and we might waste an hour in
finding him, and when we did, he ain't a critter to be wiped out
like a babby.'
'We must risk it, Rube.' I said. 'It's all up with us if he's once
put on our track.' Rube made no answer, and we turned toward the
camp.
We hadn't gone twenty yards when Rube said, 'Listen.' I listened,
and sure enough I could hear out on the plain ahead a low
trampling. There was no need of any more talk. We ran forward as
hard as we could go, turning a little out of our course to let the
horsemen who were coming pass us.
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