"Wal, take good keer of yourself, and I will find the gal if I kin!"
So saying, Jehiel started upon his errand, while the scout prepared to dog the Sioux.
CHAPTER V.
TRAILING A TRAIL.
Snowdrop, after she had left the scout, was obliged to ride very slowly until she was over the rough hills, but after she had reached the open prairie she increased the speed of her horse.
She was a fearless rider, but the long, treeless plain which lay stretched out before her wore a dreary aspect, well calculated to discourage her.
But her mission was one of life or death to her, and she undertook the task.
The sun was just rising as she entered the plains, and putting her tough pony to the run, she dashed ahead. She was doing all this for what? Not for herself, for she would have preferred to remain with the scout; nor yet for her father, for she did not think Red Pine would spare him so long; but she was going just because the man she loved had asked her to go!
Onward the brave girl urged her horse until the sun was nearly overhead, still no signs of the Sioux. She paused a moment to allow her horse a breathing-spell, and while resting she discovered a party of horsemen on her trail, and though they were a long ways off, she knew by the way in which they rode that they had a definite object, and that that object was herself.