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One morning we pulled out of camp, and the train was strung out to a considerable length along the Trail, which ran near the foot of the sand hills, two miles from the river. Between the road and the river we saw a large herd of buffalo grazing quietly, they having been down to the stream to drink. Just at this time we observed a party of returning Californians coming from the west.
"Now, boys," said the latter, "keep quiet and don't smoke. We have been following the trail of only five Indians, but we don't know how many may have joined them since they went into camp; so you must hold yourselves in readiness for any emergency. Keep a good lookout for the signal, and if you don't see it by the time the moon rises, which will be about midnight, take care of yourselves.
"Risked your life for me, did you?" She laughed jeeringly at that. "Why, you big lummox, I could have yanked you out as easy as turn a somersault if you started to drown. And now suppose you hammer the trail while it's open." He bestowed upon her a glance whose purpose was to wither her.
He had been far away, following the trail of long, long thoughts, and her touch recalled him sharply. "What is it?" he asked. "I I want to tell you the Secret." "I don't think I want to know," he answered, rather shortly. "Why why " Mary Alice faltered. Her lips quivered and her eyes began to fill. "I I must go in," she said.
My heart seemed to stop mid-beat with a kind of fear I had never known before. Aunty Boone had always been her own defender. Mat Nivers had cared for me so much that I never doubted her bigger power. It was for Eloise, Aunty Boone's "Little Lees," that my fear leaped up. I can close my eyes to-day and see again the desolate land banded by the broad white trail.
It represented meat which must, in due course, become food for them. And so they did not wish to leave it behind them, in a country bare of game. Two venturesome speculators from the pack had, however, worked round to the front, one on either side of the trail. And these were now loping silent along, each sixty or seventy yards away, watching Jan.
Suddenly the trail kinked sharply to the right, and the Dog-Wolf, swift-rushing, overshot it. "E-u-h! at fault," he muttered. "Some trick of the fool Cow's." Back and forth, back and forth like Setters the four Killers scurried. "H-o-o-oh! here away!" cried A'tim, picking it up; and on again galloped the Gray Hunters.
He had been gone perhaps an hour, and my comrade and I were sitting talking, when he raised his hand and said, "Hush, I hear something." "What did it sound like?" I said. "Like a horse snorting," and he pointed up the trail the way the Capt. should come. We sprang to our feet and listened, and in a minute more we heard the tramp of the horses' feet.
"Perhaps Ralph went back to the ranch," suggested Poke Stover. "We found no trail leading in that direction," said Lieutenant Radbury. "That is true, but he might have gone back, even so, leftenant." Amos Radbury shook his head slowly. "You only wish to give me a little encouragement, Poke," he said, with a sad smile. "I am afraid he has fallen into the hands of the Indians."
All trail outfits from the south then touched at San Antonio to provision the wagons, and on the approach of our last herd I met it and spent half a day with it, my first, last, and only glimpse of our heavy beeves.
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