And then, as noiselessly as he had come, Baltook leaped lightly into the underwood, and disappeared.
In spite of the warning the silver fox had given, Dusty Star was at a loss as to what was best to be done. Both the danger, and its direction, were equally vague. In what part of the forest Baltook had met it, he had not said. Dusty Star's senses were keen, but he knew that Kiopo's were keener. It was for Kiopo to decide. So he contented himself by watching the wolf to see what he would do.
At first Kiopo did nothing, except to throw his nose into the wind; After waiting a little, Dusty Star moved forward. A low growl from Kiopo checked him. He turned in the opposite direction. Kiopo growled again.
By this time, the sympathy between them was so close that the slightest hint was enough to say what they wanted. So that whenever Kiopo went so far as to growl, Dusty Star always knew that something was seriously amiss and never failed to take the warning.
And now, Kiopo began to move in the same direction as that which the fox had taken. Moreover he went quickly, as if there was no time to lose. Dusty Star realized that they were travelling rapidly westward, but not towards the camp.
The forest was intensely still. There was no sound save that of their own going, as they brushed against the undergrowth where it was too thick to avoid. Yet the further they went, Dusty Star was aware of an increasing sense of fear. Kiopo, too, was plainly growing more and more uneasy. In spite of his anxiety to cover the ground, he went with extreme caution. If it had not been for Dusty Star, he would have travelled much more quickly. As it was, he kept looking behind, impatiently waiting for the boy to catch up. Yet the speed at which they travelled did not seem to carry them out of reach of that mysterious danger threatening them behind.
For a long time Dusty Star had observed that they were travelling uphill; so that when, at last, they reached more open ground and came out on the top of a cliff, at the edge of a deep ravine, he was not surprised. The place was utterly unknown to him; yet Kiopo appeared to be on familiar ground. He trotted on down a shelving ledge dividing the upper from the lower part of the cliff, and Dusty Star followed. At a point where the ledge turned abruptly round an angle of the cliff, Kiopo suddenly looked back, stopped, and showed his teeth. Dusty Star saw an Indian come out from the forest almost at the same point at which they themselves had left it, and then turn towards the ledge. A moment afterwards he was followed by several more.
Without waiting to see if a still larger band now followed, Dusty Star ran quickly on, with Kiopo closely at his heels. As they proceeded, the gorge grew narrower.
Suddenly the ledge came to an end, so that it was impossible for them to continue any further. Above them, rose a precipitous wall of rock. Below, the precipice plunged sheer to the bed of the ravine. To return by the way they had come, was to run straight into the arms of their pursuers. One chance only remained: to leap the chasm before them.
It was not more than could be cleared by a vigorous jump; but down below was a terrifying depth where the shrunken stream sent up a hollow sound among the stones. If, after jumping you failed to make good foothold, you would go down to almost certain destruction in the black throat of the gorge.