John had a wool coat and a wool blanket that was getting thin. The others had much the same. John kept the blanket around him as they walked, though the stray branches of mesquite, creosote, and catclaw kept pulling it off him. He had tried running rope through two corners of it and tying it around his neck, but that was worse. The thorns caught the blanket and pulled him up short, and then he had to go back and free the damned thing from the vegetables.

He had a hat and gloves, but it was getting colder. They hadn't really seen snow since leaving the Galiuros, but there would be plenty in the Chiricahuas. The others were dressed much the same, wearing their blankets rather than carrying them. Tom had a scarf wrapped around his head, over his hat, and Sisson wore a kerchief over his mouth and nose to take the sting from the air he breathed. John had a kerchief, too, but he didn't wear it. He reasoned that he would need it more later, and it would be a comfort to finally put it on. Each carried a couple days' rations and two or three gallons of water at eight pounds a gallon. They had a total of six firearms, and each carried two hundred rounds of ammunition. They could hold off a good-sized posse if they could get to cover.

It wasn't rough going, and the farther east they went, the more the sense of danger from hidden posse members diminished. The terrain presented few obstacles. There were rocks and bushes and occasional arroyos and washouts, but there was nothing to compare to what they had already been through in the Dragoons. It was the length, not the terrain, of the trek that presented the problems now.

Visibility was surprisingly good with the small moonlight. There were few clouds, and that made it easier to see the near distances, though it also made the cold air more cutting and painful. The riders would be bedded down for the night now, since it was too dark to follow tracks and too dangerous for the horses. While horses generally see better than their riders do at night, they have a blind spot directly in front of them, so they can't see where their front hooves are landing. So it's easier for a horse to step into a gopher burrow or other hole at night, especially if the rider, whose night vision is relatively poor, can't see the hole first.

So what they had to watch out for was the truck or the trucks. And the trucks had to move with their lights on. The trucks had an advantage in speed and firepower, carrying a number of men, but they were at a huge disadvantage in being seen and heard a long way off.