In their wallets was a plentiful supply of provisions, and they had filled their water bottles at the last stream which they had crossed.

Entering a grove of trees, they unsaddled their horses and allowed them to crop the foliage and shrubs; while they threw themselves down upon the soft earth, stiff and wearied with their long journey.
"We will travel by night, always," Don Estevan said.

"I do not think that any suspicion, whatever, will arise that we have again struck south; but should any inquiry be made, it is as well that no one along the road shall have seen three mounted men." For another two days they journeyed, as proposed, by night; resting by day in quiet places and, so far as they knew, without having been seen by any of the scattered population.

It was in the middle of the third night, as they were cantering slowly along, that they heard the tread of a horse, at full gallop, approaching from the south.
"You had better withdraw from the road," Don Estevan said, "so that but one horseman will be met.

I will stop the rider, and hear why he gallops so fast.