TRACKING THE APACHES. 47 
They had hunted about all over the mountains and through 
t he ravines, but had encountered no savages, nor even caught 
a glimpse of a red-skin. Carrol, to our surprise, was not 
with them. We made inquiries, and found that all had 
reported themselves except the lieutenant and the mail-carrier. 
We questioned those who had gone the farthest, and a 
Shepherd just back from over the hills; these agreed that 
they had heard the distant report of fire-arms, coming appa- 
rently from the western plain. This was the direction the 
two red-skins had taken. So we saddled our horses without 
a moment’s delay, and, with sickening forebodings in our 
hearts, started across the mountains to the western plain. 
We scrambled up the base of Helen’s Dome, which was so 
‘ eep as almost to baffle our horses, well trained as they were 
to all sorts of bad places; then, after skirting the side for 
"some distance, we crossed a ravine to another mountain slope, 
down which we plunged, over large blocks of limestone and 
“marble, leading our horses by the bridles, and clambering 
through them as best we could. Every moment was precious, 
for the sun had almost set before we reached the plain. 
_ Then we spread out in line, nine in number; for there was 
| r 0 enemy in sight, and our only hope was to strike the trail ; 
“for we knew they must have passed somewhere in this direc- 
‘ion. Every eye was fixed on the ground, every blade of 
e ass was closely scanned; our souls were in our eyes. At 
last one marked “pony tracks;” then another ealled out, 
“ This way they lead ;” not two, three, or four tracks, but 
many ; perhaps a dozen. The white men had evidently fol- 
wed too far in pursuit, and falling mto an ambuscade, had 
on cut off from their comrades. Most of the hoof-prints 
were naked, but two sets were shod. These were certainly 
those of the missing horses. We could not hurry on very 
