utation
as a warrior mainly rested. They sat up until they had smoked all the
wisdom out of several pipes of tobacco to each warrior, but did not seem
to be any nearer a conclusion. The camp was under the special charge of
One-eye, but that dog was becoming quiet and solemn. His especial master
had departed, he knew not whither. All the bones in camp now belonged to
him, and he had no time to bury so much as one of them. He was not fond
of tobacco, and as soon as the smoking began he walked out of camp to
patrol the edge of the woods and to keep all the eye left him on duty
against possible intruders. He had no faith in a country which was
evidently infested by pale-faces.

If he had known more about that valley and the region into which it
led, he would have had an even worse opinion of it. The fact that it
contained a large stream of water had already suggested many things to
the experienced mind of Long Bear. All such water, he well knew, kept on
running, no matter what might be its crooks and turnings. If he and his
braves could have followed that stream far enough while they were
smoking and talking over plans, they might have reached a place where it
turned a corner of the mountains and was joined by another and larger
stream. The two in partnership were able to float a canoe. There was no
canoe afloat there, but there was something yet more important away on
down, a pretty long way, below the fork made by the junction of the two
streams. There was a camp occupied by red warriors only, without one
squaw to be seen in it, and it was therefore the camp of a "war-party."
It was accompanied by a large drove of ponies, horses, and mules, and
some of these had saddles and others carried packs. These were signs
that the war-party had been successful and that pale-faces had been the
sufferers. Every quadruped visible wore an air of being more or less
fatigued, in token of having been driven or ridden both fast and far.
From this it might have been gathered that these red men, however
successful had been their expedition, believed or feared that they were
followed by somebody whom they preferred to get away from. All these
signs told the exact truth; it was also true that some pains had been
taken to discover whether or not the supposed pursuit continued.

At the very hour when One-eye was making the best use he could of the
bright moonshine in front of his own camp, and knew nothing at all about
this other, a tall man st