f the
plains have less occasion to cultivate it.

Topanashka Tihua was aware that if he followed the Tehua he was risking
his own life. But it was not the first time he had attempted such
dangerous undertakings, and so far he had never failed. With the
configuration of the ground and the landmarks in vegetation and scenery
he was far better acquainted than the Tehua. Furthermore, he enjoyed the
material advantage that the latter could not have noticed him.
Everything depended on ascertaining unseen as much as possible about the
enemy's movements.

From some of Shotaye's gesticulations the maseua had concluded that the
Tehua would proceed on the old trail leading from the Rito to the Puye,
or at least keep himself very near that trail. He was confirmed in it by
the direction which the friend of the woman took after leaving her.
Topanashka maintained, therefore, the same course, going slowly and with
the greatest caution. He kept on the alert for the least noise that
struck him as suspicious, or for which he could not at once account.

In consequence of the heat of the day, the forest was remarkably still.
Not a breeze sighed through the tops of the pines, for the wind that
blows toward a coming storm and heralds its approach rises later in the
day. The distant gobbling of turkeys was a sound that awakened no
suspicions, the more so as it grew fainter and fainter, receding in the
direction of the higher crests and peaks. Neither were the numerous
crows a source of uneasiness to him. On every clearing these birds
gravely promenaded by half-dozens together, and his cautious gliding
across such exposed places did not in the least discommode the dusky
company. As soon as Topanashka came in sight of the trail again he kept
near it, but to its left, gliding from tree to tree or creeping across
clear expanses from shrub to shrub. He therefore moved more slowly than
the Tehua whom he was pursuing.

In this manner he had advanced for quite a while, always keeping an eye
on the trail to his right, when he caught sight of a suspicious object
lying directly in the path, where the latter was barely more than a
faint streak across the thin grass that grows sometimes on the plateaus
in bunches. At once the old man stopped, cowered behind a juniper, and
waited.

A novice on the war-path, or an inexperienced white man, would have gone
to examine the strange object more closely, but the old scout takes
such unexpected finds in the li