“I see some grass up there.”
“That’s grass, but there is a Comanche not far off. My advice would be to turn around and ride the other way as though we had missed the trail, and hide behind some of these swells until that tuft of grass goes away. That will give them confidence in themselves, and as soon as it comes dark we’ll take the trail again.”
“You don’t suppose you can follow this trail in the night-time, do you?”
“I can try,” said the guide, modestly.
Very reluctantly the captain gave the order to turn about, and in the course of an hour they got behind one of the swells, out of sight. Then the guide told the captain that if he would go back with him he would show him something. The officer left the command behind the swells, and after a long and toilsome creep up the hill they took off their hats and Carl made a hole in the grass for him to see through.
“I see that tuft of grass yet,” said the captain, looking through his binoculars.
“So do I; but if you watch it for a few minutes you will see it go away.”
They watched that swell for more than half an hour, and then the tuft of grass was laid aside, and the Indian showed his head and breast above the hill. He held that position for five or ten minutes, and then jumped to his feet and ran out of sight. The captain was much amazed to learn how easily Carl had picked out some grass that sheltered an Indian, and declared that if the guide had not been with him he never would have seen those Comanches again. They made their camp there behind the swell, eating hardtack and raw pork for want of a fire to cook by, and shortly after dark started on the trail again. At midnight the men stopped to rest, and Carl set out with a single soldier to hunt up the Indians’ camp. Of course it was miserable going, with rocks and trees to impede their progress, but finally they came to the end of the gorge, and there Carl smelled smoke. The Indian camp was around there somewhere, so the guide left the soldier and went on ahead.
“I tell you there is no fun in creeping up on an Indian camp in the dead of night when you don’t know how many savages there are watching you,” said Carl, once more interrupting himself in his story. “I made out that there were just three Indians in the lot——”
“How did you make that out?” said Lieutenant Parker.