On the morning of the third day of the pursuit the Lamanites halt. Helaman can see that they are no longer pursued, but he cannot tell why. If the Lamanites have simply given up, they may be attempting a trap of their own to draw Helaman’s men back toward them. The Lamanites surely know what the strategy should have been, that Helaman would attack when Antipus attacked.
Since Helaman cannot tell whether or not Antipus is attacking, and indeed it is highly unlikely that he has any idea of where Antipus is, Helaman cannot be certain that the reason they stopped was to face Antipus. If Antipus were too far behind, then the Lamanites could be stopping to make it appear that the strategy was working, and thus lure Helaman into an attack. If Antipus were not at their rear, they could dedicate their entire army to destroying Helaman, and then turn to Antipus, which was the reason for their flight in the first place.
The reason that Helaman cannot tell where Antipus is has to do with the nature of a military march through such rough terrain. Hassig suggests that it is reasonable to assume a square meter of distance between any soldier and his companion in a column. A single column of 8,000 warriors would stretch for 15 miles, and the end of the column could be 6 to 10 hours behind the front of the column (Hassig 1988, p. 67). Of course, this extreme could be ameliorated by having columns march in parallel, and the larger the number of parallel columns, the shorter the line of march.
Nevertheless, in the uneven terrain over which this flight has taken place, we cannot suppose an overly wide set of columns. Thus the Lamanite army would stretch for a long distance, probably until the end of visual perception as terrain interrupted the clear vision. Antipus would be some time behind them, and it would not be surprising that the time distance between Antipus and Helaman would be several hours at least by the this time in the chase. Helaman had to make his decision without the advantage of the single piece of information that could have assisted him in his decision, the location of Antipus’ army.