“You should not go alone,” Flying Arrow protested. “I will go with you.”
“The chiefs put you in charge of this hunting party,” Great Bear reminded him. “You must return with it.”
“That is true,” Flying Arrow admitted. “Still, you should not go alone.”
“I will go with Grandfather,” Little Bear offered.
“Why of course,” Great Bear exclaimed. “I should have thought of that. Little Bear has proved himself dependable.”
None of the warriors offered a protest. If any of them thought a boy would be small help on so dangerous an errand, they didn’t say so. The party rode back into camp where Great Bear busied himself gathering the things they would take with them. When he had finished, there were only two small bundles.
“We can travel faster if we travel light,” he explained. “We will find our food as we need it.”
Despite their haste, the sun was almost overhead when they reached the trail again. Great Bear took the lead and Little Bear followed behind. They went rapidly, as whoever had stolen the horses had made no attempt to hide his trail. They had not gone far before Little Bear realized the trail was leading straight towards Buffalo Trap Canyon. He could see Grandfather was troubled because the trail was running so straight and was so well marked.
When they came to the stream that ran through the valley in front of the entrance to Buffalo Trap Canyon, Little Bear saw why Grandfather had been troubled by the plain trail. The trail led straight across the stream into the place where the grass had been burned off. Here it became a maze of criss-crossing tracks. Great Bear dismounted and carefully studied the marks. Little Bear jumped from his horse and looked, too. The tracks completely puzzled him.
“He led the horses in and out of the stream so that we wouldn’t know whether to look upstream or downstream for his trail,” Great Bear explained.