Tom woke to the rush of wings above him. The sky was nearly dark, streaked with slender bands of rose and orange, and in the middle of it all, a long, dark spiral like the funnel of a tornado, only mottled and full of movement, soared high above them and deep into the night sky. Free-tailed bats. With the coming of the night, the bats were leaving their den and traveling in a great spiral, nearly vertically, into the darkening sky. He had seen bats before, but not in these numbers, not this close.

He shook John, and when John woke, Tom, without speaking, pointed up to the spiral, which showed no sign of letting up but rather got darker and louder as more bats came out of the mountains and up into the sky.

“Holy Jesus,” John said.

Sisson had come awake now, and he looked up at the great funnel of bats rising ever upward. None of them said anything, just watched the funnel rising and filling with more dark, leathery wings. It seemed to have no end, as if the earth were transforming itself into a steady stream of bats. It was as if when all the bats were in the sky, the earth would be gone.

“They're going. Guess we ought to, too,” Tom said.

“How far you think they're going tonight?” Sisson asked.

“Far as they want to, I guess,” John said. “Look how fast the little bastards are. How far are we going tonight?”

“Far as we can. Far as we can,” Tom said. “We can't make it across the valley, but we might make Ash Creek and find cover for the day. Then we can get up into the Chiricahuas tomorrow night. We get to there, we're in pretty good shape.” He believed that, more or less. Perhaps more than he should, less than he wanted. They had been able to traverse the valley from hill to hill, so far. But now, this far south after running from the posse, they were going to be heading into more than thirty miles of open country.

The valley was pretty flat, and that would increase their speed. He thought they should be good for two and a half, three miles an hour. Maybe, if it was just him and John, they could push four. But they had Sisson, and Sisson was wearing down some. He moved all right, but he needed more rest than either of the brothers did. They would have to stop every hour or so.