After threats and other ways of making him tell his story the girls finally had him launched.
“Well, it was this way,” he began:
“After I left Tally at the bridge to go up the little brook, while I was to go on to the lookout, he tells me he took his horse to a good hiding-place and then pulled his moccasins out of his panniers and put them upon his feet, then he started.”
“Didn’t he ride his horse?” asked Betty, in surprise.
“No, because a horse with his four hoofs makes more noise than an Indian’s two feet clad in moccasins. And Tally can creep anywhere without making a sound once he has on his moccasins, as you all know,” said Mr. Gilroy.
“But he was taking chances in having those very men get his horse as well as the burros,” ventured Hester.
“No, because Tally knew they would not come back the way they rode away with the burros, and he was too good a Guide to hide his animal in a place easy to find by others.
“Well, he says, he was fully an hour in and out of that stream while examining both banks carefully for tracks of the pack-animals. Finally he saw a spot where the bushes were trampled and broken down. Then, quite unexpectedly, he came to a small clearing where the ashes of a camp fire had slowly but surely eaten a way through the parched grass and would have reached in a short time the fringe of woods. He beat it out before he continued his hunt; and, in thus carefully circling the clearing to quench the fire, he came across the tracks in the earth of the quarry he sought. He was confident now that this was the right trail of the thieves. He also noticed that they were riding the horses which must have been corraled at their camp when they crept out to get the burros.
“He could follow the distinct hoof-prints more speedily, knowing they would lead him to those he was after. But he was careful, while going, to make sure his revolver and the rifle were in order for a moment’s need.
“The tracks led in and out as the men tried to find the easiest way through the forest. At last the trail became so clear that Tally could increase his pace till, quite suddenly, he came out of the thick forest to a small clearing where he found what he wanted. One man was just starting a camp fire, while another was hobbling two horses. The three burros stood waiting patiently to be unloaded after this arduous trail.