“If we can find wood, we will build a fire,” Great Bear decided. “There is small danger anyone will see the smoke.”
They searched the place where they had found wood for last night’s fire. There were only a few small sticks they had missed in the darkness. Great Bear whittled these into fine shavings. After many failures, he finally managed to get a fire started. The damp wood didn’t make a very good fire, but it did give off some heat.
“How far is it to the place of tumbling waters?” Little Bear asked.
“Not far,” Grandfather answered. “We should be there by the time the sun is straight overhead.”
The trip towards the place of tumbling waters was slow and tiresome. Great Bear had lost all hope of recapturing the stolen horses. Little Bear, too, was greatly discouraged. Unless Spirit-of-Water-That-Falls told one of them in a dream how to find the trail, the Crow was almost sure to escape. At first Little Bear took some pleasure from the thought that the Crow might have been caught in the flood. It would be good to have the Great Spirit get rid of one enemy. Then he remembered that if the Crow were drowned in a flood, the horses would be, too, and the thought was less pleasant.
Great Bear’s horse plodded slowly along with Little Bear’s following. There was a heavy carpeting of grass in the canyon, but the flood had so soaked the ground that the horses sank deep. The sun was almost straight overhead when they came out of the canyon onto higher ground. Here the footing was more solid and the horses moved faster.
“Are we getting near, Grandfather?” Little Bear asked.
“It will take longer than I expected,” Grandfather admitted. “Still, we should be there before dark.”
After following high ground for a time, Great Bear turned his horse to the left. The ground sloped to the south, and soon Little Bear saw they were nearing a river. Grandfather led the way along the bank of the stream. For some time Little Bear had thought he heard a roaring sound like that of the night before. Now there could be no doubt of it. It was the roar of rushing water. He wondered anxiously why Great Bear didn’t turn towards higher land so that they could escape this flood.
“We are near the place of tumbling waters,” Great Bear explained, stopping his horse. “We will turn the horses loose to graze while we go ahead on foot.”