reliable; the
horsemen were heading for their own villages.

The Shawanoe called all his consummate woodcraft into play to determine
how much time had passed since the party rode over this ground. He
figured that it must have been on the previous day, though such
conclusion did not fully accord with what was told him by the chieftain
Amokeat. His opinion of that leader, however, made him ready to believe
anything ill of him.

If the horsemen had twenty-four hours the start of their pursuer, and
kept up their rapid flight, he could hardly expect to come up with them
for several days. Deerfoot believed he could steadily gain, but he was
on foot and they were mounted. Such gain, in the most favorable
circumstances, must be gradual. Had they halted for any length of time,
or diverged from the regular course, the prospect would be all the more
favorable for him.

With this theory, Deerfoot now made a change of policy. Instead of
keeping to the trail with all its windings (made in order to
accommodate the horses), he adopted his other recourse--that of
reasoning out the route most likely to be followed by the warriors,
and, fixing upon a camp far in advance, making his way thither by the
most direct course. Provided he fell into no error, he would thus save
miles of distance and hours of time.

It was still early in the day when he forded a narrow, rapid stream, in
which the water rose to his waist, and climbing the nearest elevation,
which was a ridge crowned with rocks and a few stunted cedars, he
paused to make a study of the country spread before him.

Naturally his first scrutiny was directed to the northeast. In that
direction the surface was rolling, with numerous valleys and mountain
spurs, but none of the latter was of great height. The towering peaks
rose more to the north and west. There was variety and yet sameness in
the vast undulating expanse, with its wealth of wood, of rocks, some
bleak and dark of color, and others fringed with vegetation, of
swelling hills, many of which elsewhere would have been called
mountains, and beautiful valleys, with numerous streams hidden through
most of their flow, all seeking an outlet in the Atlantic or Pacific,
hundreds of miles away.

The bed of one mountain torrent could be traced for a long distance by
the mist that hovered over it, though the spectator could not catch the
first sight of the water itself. At another point to the right the
Shawanoe saw what appeared