We mean to escape to-night up the bed of the creek." Ned nodded.
"Your first guess is good," he said.

"If the promise of a dark night keeps up we're going to try." The promise was fulfilled.

The Mexicans made no hostile movement throughout the afternoon, but they maintained a rigid watch.
When the sun had set and the thick night had come down the Panther told of the daring enterprise they were about to undertake, and all approved.
By nine o'clock the darkness was complete, and the little band gathered at the point where the path was cut down into the bed of the creek.

It was likely that Mexicans were on all sides of the grove, but the Panther did not believe that any of them, owing to bitter experience, would enter the cut made by the stream.

But, as leader, he insisted upon the least possible noise.