164 WAITING IN THE WILDERNESS 



left. They paused briefly almost beneath him, 

 then went forward on his trail. 



As soon as the Indians were out of hearing 

 Crandall slipped to the earth and hurried cau- 

 tiously forward across the grassy opening. He 

 had so carefully back-tracked that he felt certain 

 the Indians would lose an hour or more before 

 they could find his trail at the base of the tree. 



It was more than one hundred miles to the 

 nearest place of safety. He realized that to make 

 Fort Lapway it would be wisest to travel as far 

 as possible through the woods before crossing the 

 open stretch of prairie. This forest was a narrow, 

 ragged-edged strip between wide, grassy plains. 



After journeying forward a couple of hours 

 Crandall suddenly came upon a dim trail 

 through the woods which he remembered having 

 followed some weeks before. He recalled that a 

 mile farther on the trail this strip of woods was 

 deeply indented with a peninsula of prairie. 

 Of course the Indians would know of this short 

 way across the tongue of prairie, and would be 

 pretty certain to follow it, thereby saving a mile 

 or so, to head him off. Starting toward the 

 edge of the woods he was suddenly aware of 

 approaching footsteps and dropped behind a 

 boulder. The four Indian runners passed near 

 by and stopped in the edge of the woods only a 

 few yards from him. Here they briefly con- 



