The next morning the two boys left camp together. When they had gone about a third of the distance Little Eagle had covered the day before, they halted.
“You’d better go south here,” Little Eagle suggested. “I’ll go farther east and then I’ll turn south.”
Little Eagle went almost as far east as he had gone yesterday before he turned south. He plodded slowly through the deep snow. He climbed and crossed many low hills without finding the horses. As he climbed to the top of another hill, he decided he would turn back toward Angry Wolf and search the ground between them. From the top of the hill Little Eagle could see a clump of trees below him. It was possible that the horses were crowded into the shelter of the trees and were hidden from his sight. He decided to look behind the trees.
When Little Eagle circled the trees, he saw the tracks of the horses leading south. He hurried forward to get a better look at the trail they had left. He saw that the horses had left the grove while snow was still falling. Their tracks were partly covered with snow. He stopped in dismay when he saw that the tracks had been made by three horses.
Little Eagle made a quick search under the trees. He found where someone had camped during the worst of the storm. He was not good enough at tracking to read all of the signs, but he could read enough of them to tell that someone had been camping here and that the horses had wandered to the shelter of the trees during the storm. Whoever had been here had taken the horses and ridden on while the snow was still falling.
It didn’t take any sign reading for Little Eagle to realize how great a misfortune had befallen Angry Wolf and himself. There was no hope that they could get the horses back. It would be equally hopeless to try to cross the prairie on foot. They would have to turn back to where there were more trees. He and Angry Wolf would have to spend the winter by themselves.
Little Eagle turned west to find Angry Wolf’s trail. When he reached it, he followed it south. He went as swiftly as he could go. Angry Wolf glanced back and saw him. The other boy turned back to meet Little Eagle.
“Where are the horses?” Angry Wolf asked.
“Someone took them,” Little Eagle answered.
As Little Eagle told of the trail he had found, he closely watched Angry Wolf’s face. He saw fear in the other boy’s eyes, and he tried to make his voice cheerful.