he party in
whose track I had so long been following; and, if so, by what path had
they descended? Speculation is half-brother to Hope. No sooner had I
begun to canvass this proposition than it aroused my drooping energies,
and rallied my failing courage.

I set about to seek for some clew to the descent, and by the moonlight,
which was now full and strong, I detected foot-tracks in the clayey soil
near the verge of the cliff. A little after I found a narrow pathway,
which seemed to lead down the face of the bluff. The trees were
scratched, too, in many places with marks familiar to prairie
travellers, but which to me only betokened the fact that human hands had
been at work upon them. I gained courage by these, which at least I
knew were not "Indian signs," no more than the foot-tracks were those of
Indian feet.

The descent was tedious, and often perilous; the path, stopping abruptly
short at rocks, from which the interval to the next footing should be
accomplished by a spring, or a drop of several feet, was increased in
danger by the indistinct light. In the transit I received many a sore
bruise, and ere I reached the bottom my flannel drapery was reduced to a
string of rags which would have done no credit to a scarecrow.

When looking from the top of the cliff, the fire appeared to be
immediately at its foot; but now I perceived it stood about half a mile
off in the plain. Thither I bent my steps, half fearing, half hoping,
what might ensue. So wearied was I by the fatigue of the descent, added
to the long day's journey, that even in this short space I was often
obliged to halt and take rest. Exhaustion, hunger, and lassitude weighed
me down, till I went along with that half-despairing effort a worn-out
swimmer makes as his last before sinking.

A more pitiable object it would not be easy to picture. The blood oozing
from my wound, re-opened by the exertion, had stained my flannel dress,
which, ragged and torn, gave glimpses of a figure reduced almost to a
skeleton. My beard was long, adding to the seeming length of my gaunt
and lantern jaws, blue with fatigue and fasting. My shoes were in
tatters, and gave no protection to my bleeding feet; while my hands
were torn and cut by grasping the rocks and boughs in my descent.
Half-stumbling, half-tottering, I came onward till I found myself close
to the great fire, at the base of a mound--a "Prairie roll," as it is
called--which formed a shelter against the east wind