378 WILD SPORTS m THE SOTJTH. 



folks for no good, but it mayn't be he's goin' so far. 

 She'll think I'm s'pectin' danger when there ain't 

 none. 



" Wall, wall I might as well be down thar. She won't 

 be any the worse for my bein' nigh her. Poor child, 

 poor child ! And ef thar's nobody about, why I can 

 come away again without her knowin' it. It does a 

 fellar good to know she is near, and ma^be it will turn 

 up as times go she may need me." 



That night, Mike with his dog slept among some wil- 

 lows, kindling bis fire from the half-burned brands that 

 had served before to cook the food and dry the mocca- 

 sins of the band he was pursuing. It seemed as if a sort 

 of instinct guided him on the trail. One day he might 

 not see it at all. Travelling, as they both were, by 

 canoes, there were no signs left save where landings had 

 been made to cook or sleep, or to carry over the little 

 portages, the traversing of which so shortened the route 

 between Indian River and Jupiter Inlet. But it was the 

 knowledge of native character that guided the pursuer. 

 He could tell on his day's journey just where such a 

 band, impelled by Indian cunning, would land to con- 

 ceal their fire. Had they been running carelessly, land- 

 ing where accident led them, their course would have 

 been more difficult of detection, but Mike was tracking 

 them mentally, more by reason than by a trail percepti- 

 ble to the eye, and as he ran his canoe to the beach, it 

 would sometimes strike on the very footprints of the 

 savages, and the hunter would give his satisfied ejacula- 



