“I hope you are not hobnobbing with the green monster,” was the response, in comical disapproval. “There is an explanation, and we are on the way to get it.”
There was no trail that horses could follow, and so the animals were left at the mouth of the ravine while the three scouts and Carl Henson followed the footprints.
The following was not easy; but the scouts were experts, and though they went slowly over the rocky ground, yet there was never a stop. Once they came to a flat bowlder where it was evident that the girl had rested.
The king of scouts believed that Holmes and Miss Wilton were not far off, for he had felt of the carcass of the pinto pony and found it warm.
About a mile up the ravine the pursuers came to a point where the ravine branched. One branch took a direction at right angles with the course they had been following. The direction was toward the west and south, for they could see that half a mile up the branch curved toward the cañon they had but recently left.
Buffalo Bill was both surprised and irritated when the discovery was made that the tracks of the man and girl turned into the western branch.
A suspicion of the truth caused him to say to Wild Bill and Bart Angell: “We may have been tricked. It looks like it. Hickok, you and Bart will take the back track to the place where we left our ponies. Henson and I will follow these prints. They will take us to the cañon trail, and we can all meet inside of an hour.”
The order was instantly obeyed. Wild Bill and Angell hurried down the ravine. They reached the spot where the ponies had been tethered to make the alarming discovery that the animals were gone.
Wild Bill looked at his comrade, and then each began to use language that, while most expressive, would not look well in print.
The ebullition over, Angell ran to the cañon trail and looked along the route eastward. “There they are!” he shouted in wrath. “See ’em, Hickok? Most to ther summit, an’ a-goin’ it fer keeps.”