FOLLOWING A CONCEALED TRAIL 121 



but most of the time he went at a trot. When a 

 horse is walking he brings his front and hind feet 

 down so that the hoof makes a flat, equally deep 

 impression all round. In trotting the front feet 

 sink deepest at the toe, and in galloping they 

 strike deeper than the hind ones. In running, 

 both front and hind feet strike hard and dig 

 deep, causing the dust to splash; or they may 

 tear up and throw the earth. 



After about thirty miles on the main road, the 

 trail turned off on a dim right-hand fork. The 

 horse had galloped along in the grass for half a 

 mile or more. Moore sent the other two men 

 down the main road to see if the thief had come 

 back into it farther on, while he followed the trail 

 to the right. After going a mile down the main 

 road and finding no tracks, the men returned to 

 Moore. When they came up they found him 

 crawling along on hands and knees, carefully 

 feeling the faint tracks in the grass-covered 

 earth. 



"That cuss has pulled the shoes off his horse," 

 he remarked, "and I am trying to find which 

 way he went. He has not gone on in this direc- 

 tion. The chances are that he went back to the 

 main road, thinking we should not discover that 

 he had pulled the horse's shoes." 



They started to circle in order to pick up the 

 trail where it led off from the confusion of 



