It was near mid-day when Hugh suddenly drew up his horse, and motioned to Jack to ride up beside him. He pointed to the ground, where Jack saw many old tracks of horses, and besides these, a half dozen ruts in the soil, like those made by wagon wheels, but irregular, moving from side to side as they proceeded, and looking as if something had been dragged along the ground, following in some degree the inequalities of its surface. Jack could see that these marks, as well as the hoof prints, had been made a good while before, yet after the grass had begun to grow in the spring. The trail pointed nearly in the direction which they were following, so that by keeping on, they would cross it at an acute angle.
"There, son," said Hugh, "there's been a camp of people along here."
"Indians?"
"Yes, quite a bunch of 'em. There was quite a band of horses, and the lodge poles and travois, as you see, make a pretty big trail. I expect there must be a dozen lodges of 'em at least; maybe more."
"Oh," said Jack, "I was wondering what those queer marks were; those are the travois, are they?"
"Yes, them and the lodge poles. You know, when they're moving over the prairie they tie a bunch of lodge poles on either side of the horse, over his withers, and the big ends of the poles drag on the ground; that's what's cut the prairie up this way. Them people are going pretty near the same way we're going, but it's three or four weeks since they've passed. I've a notion we'll follow this trail for a while, and see which way they're going. If they seem to be going the same way we are, we'll branch off and travel closer to the mountains, where the country is rougher and there's more timber."
Hugh rode on, close by the trail, and Jack followed, driving the pack horses. A mile or two further along, Hugh stopped again, and Jack rode up to him. Hugh pointed again to the ground before him, and then got off and carefully inspected a moccasin track in the trail that looked much fresher than the others. "Well," said he, as he stood up after looking carefully at it, "I don't like that very much. Somebody's been along here quite a while after the bulk of these people passed. It's hard to tell much about that track, because it's been rained on, but it looks to me as if it wa'n't more'n a day or two old. You go back and drive the horses on slowly, and I'll see whether I can make anything out of this fresh trail or not."
For an hour or two Jack followed Hugh, who went on quite slowly, frequently dismounting and looking at a track, and then sometimes going on foot for some little distance before mounting again. At length the trail bore off considerably to the right, and here Hugh left it and struck off sharply to the left. A little later, he called Jack up to him and said, "There seems to be seven or eight men following that trail on foot, and I expect likely it's a war party that's going to try to catch that camp and steal their horses. If that's so, you and me want to get as far away as we can, and I expect the best thing we can do is to strike off toward the mountains, and when we camp to-night to cache as well as we can; and maybe we'll take an early start to-night, after the horses have fed and got rested, and make a quick drive, camping pretty early in the morning, and starting out again just before night, and ride half the night. I don't want to get mixed up in no squabbles between any Indians that we're likely to meet here a way."
They rode on pretty rapidly. Down in a little hollow they stopped, looked carefully over the packs, tightened all the saddles, and then remounting, started at a still better pace, trotting wherever it was level or down hill, and only walking the horses on the steeper slopes. By this time it had become very hot. Jack had tied his slicker and coat on behind the saddle, but was still uncomfortable under the broiling rays of the sun.