62 ON THE FKONTIEE. 



It looked very bad indeed. Then he wheeled round and 

 galloped off. 



Camp was immediately aroused, and a council held. 



The theory that we were in immediate danger was the 

 most prudent one to make the basis of our deliberations. 



Where ? when ? how ? had our night visitor struck the 

 track he had so successfully run to its termination ? 



These seemed the most probable conjectures : the 

 Indian came across the trail he had followed while hunting 

 consequently by daylight. Fifteen miles or thereabouts 

 in a direct line was as far off as any of us had lately been 

 in the direction whence he had come ; when seen he was 

 tracking at the rate of six miles an hour, including checks. 

 He was seen at about two o'clock ; therefore it had been 

 half-past eleven that night or thereabouts when he started 

 on the trail. If he had known of the trail before sunset 

 why had he lost five hours ? Because when he had first 

 seen the sign his horse had been loaded with buffalo-meat, 

 or tired, perhaps both; and as the Indian could not tell 

 how far he would have to go on the trail, or whether he 

 might not have to make a run for life before he got back, 

 he had returned to his camp for a fresh horse ; indeed, it 

 was almost certain he would have done so. Making the 

 calculations against ourselves, the Indian first saw our 

 sign at sundown, and it had taken him five hours to get to 

 his camp and back to it ; half that time with a tired horse, 

 half with a fresh one that he would be saving for a 

 possibly long ride, perhaps a race. Eight miles an hour 

 would be about the speed he would have averaged ; there- 

 fore, his camp must be twenty miles beyond the allowed 



