"Did you get wet, papa?" enquired Dot, solicitous for his welfare.
"No; but I came mighty near it."
"Then I suppose we must follow down the stream, and try it elsewhere," said the wife.
"Yes, with the discouraging fact that we are likely to pass a dozen fordable points, and strike a place that is deeper than anywhere else."
The saddles were readjusted, and the move made without delay. Since it was hard to thread their way through the wood, which lined the stream only a short distance from the water, they withdrew from it to the prairie, where travelling was easier.
Reaching the open plain, but keeping close to the margin of the timber, from which, fortunately, they had emerged at a point considerably removed from that of the entrance, the rancher repeated the precaution he had used before.
"Wait a moment," he said, in a low voice.
Once more the snow was brushed aside at his feet and the ear pressed against the ground.
To his dismay he heard the tramp of horses' hoofs on the hard earth.
"They are near at hand!" he said, in a startled whisper; "we must get away as quickly as we can."