CAPTAIN DAN HENRIE. 435 
‘the stream became heavily timbered, and he knew they would 
not follow him into it for fear they might come upon his 
friends. 
It was a tremendous race, for the Indians knew the 
advantage as well as he; and Dan vows that his long curly 
hair began to straighten and lift his cap on its ends before 
he reached the point, they pushed him so close and hard. 
By the skin of his teeth he got by before they surrounded 
him, and now he says his “hair fell as smooth and sleek as 
if a pint of bear’s grease had been poured over it;’’ but not 
until he had reached up and taken down his cap off the stiff 
ends to wave as he shouted back at them in derisive triumph, 
and then darted beneath the shades of the friendly wood. 
They left him here as he expected; but as this was most 
evidently a dangerous neighborhood, he concluded it would. 
be safest not to tarry here but get out of it as fast as possible, 
for there was no telling what new whim might take these 
fellows when they had spread around on his trail and found 
him to be alone! So away he went through the woods for 
five or six miles without halting. 
The hurry and necessities of his flight had taken him off 
his course back to the rendezvous of his companions. He 
now first discovered this as he emerged from the timber upon 
the prairie again, and found himself far enough away from 
the course of the stream. He paused but for a moment, to 
collect himself and try and get back the true idea of his 
direction. Thinking he had it, he urged his horse into a 
swift run again. This was kept up for several hours, until 
night began to close around him, and his horse to give 
unmistakable indications that he must have rest before he 
went much further. He came at last to a small rivulet 
trickling along a deep, rough cut, and as he supposed, in the 
direction of the west branch of the Nueces. He had passed 
the camp far enough, he knew, but this would set him right 
if he followed it up when daybreak came. So he selected 
