With Garey, the curious succeeded better; and as we continued on, the
latter explained to them how the trail had been recovered by his
comrade--for to Rube, it appeared, was the credit due.

Rube remembered the mesa spring. It was the water in its branch that we
had seen gleaming under the light. The thoughtful trapper conjectured,
and rightly as it proved, that the steed would stop there to drink. He
had passed along the stony shingle by the mound--simply because around
the cliff lay his nearest way to the water--and had followed a dry ridge
that led directly from the mesa to the spring-branch. Along this ridge,
going gently at the time, his hoof had left no marks--at least none that
could be distinguished by torch-light--and this was why the trail had
been for the moment lost. Rube, however, remembered that around the
spring there was a tract of soft boggy ground; and he anticipated that
in this the hoof-prints would leave a deep impression. To find them he
needed only a "kiver" for the candle, and the huge hat of Quackenboss
served the purpose well. An umbrella would scarcely have been better.

As the trappers had conjectured, they found the tracks in the muddy
margin of the spring-branch. The steed had drunk at the pool; but
immediately after had resumed his wild flight, going westward from the
mound.

Why had he gone off at a gallop? Had he been alarmed by aught? Or had
he taken fresh affright, at the strange rider upon his back?

I questioned Garey. I saw that he knew why. He needed pressing for the
answer.

He gave it at length, but with evident reluctance. These were his words
of explanation--

"Thar are wolf-tracks on the trail!"

CHAPTER SIXTY TWO.

WOLVES ON THE TRACK.

The wolves, then, were after him!

The trackers had made out their footprints in the mud of the arroyo.
Both kinds had been there--the large brown wolf of Texas, and the small
barking _coyote_ of the plains. A full pack there had been, as the
trappers could tell by the numerous tracks, and that they were following
the horse, the tracks also testified to these men of strange
intelligence. How knew they this? By what sign?

To my inquiries, I obtained answer from Garey.

Above the spring-branch extended a shelving bank; up this the steed had
bounded, after drinking at the pool. Up this, too, the wolves had
sprung after: they had left the indentation of their claws in the soft
loam.

How knew Garey that they