But the horse made no attempt to move, and Ned watched them pass on and out of sight.

He had not heard the sound of footsteps or voices above the wind, and after they were gone it seemed to him that he had seen a line of phantoms.
But he was sure that his own mortal eyes had beheld that for which he was looking.

He and his comrades had been watching the Rio Grande to see whether the Mexicans had crossed, and now he at least knew it.
He waited patiently three or four hours longer, until the wind died and the fall of snow ceased, when he mounted his horse and rode out of the dip.

The wind suddenly sprang up again in about fifteen minutes, but now it blew from the south and was warm.

The darkness thinned away as the moon and stars came out in a perfect sky of southern blue.