and in need of such privacy to
readjust our disguises--disarranged in the chase. Under cover of the
tents, we could renew our toilet without the danger of being intruded
upon. Chiefly for this reason, then, had we encumbered ourselves with
the skin lodges.

Thus far had we come without interruption. Though the trail was a route
frequently travelled, both by Indians and whites, no one of either race
had been encountered upon the way. We had seen neither man nor horse,
excepting our own. For all that, we had not advanced without a certain
circumspection. There was still a possibility of peril, of which we
were aware; and we omitted no precautions that might enable us to avoid
it. The danger I allude to was a probable encounter with some of our
late enemies--the Arapahoes. Not those who had just been discomfited;
but a party of my own pursuers of the preceding night. Some of these
had returned to the butte as already stated, but had _all_ gone back?
Might not others--stimulated by a more eager spirit of vengeance, or the
ambition of striking a glorious _coup_ by my capture--have continued the
pursuit? If so we might expect to encounter them on their return; or,
if first perceived, we might fall into an ambuscade. In either case
should they chance to outnumber us--to any great extent--a collision
would be inevitable and dangerous.

If such a party was ahead of us--and it was still a question--we knew
that they could not possibly be aware of the defeat sustained by their
comrades under Red-Hand; and, having no knowledge of their own
predicament, would fight without that dread, which such a circumstance
might otherwise have inspired. It was scarcely probable either, that
their party would be a very small one--by no means as small as our own.
It was not likely that less than a dozen of their warriors would venture
over ground, where, at every moment, they would risk meeting with a more
powerful band of their Utah enemies--to say nothing of an encounter with
a retaliating party from the Mormon train? Weighing the probabilities
that Arapahoes were ahead of us, we had taken due precaution to avoid
the contingency of meeting them. We had looked for "sign" to contradict
our suspicions, or confirm them. We had not found any--either tracks of
their horses, or any other trace of their passage along the trail. In
the canon, yes. There we had seen the hoof-prints of their horses: but
not beyond it, nor at the entrance