He kept his feet off the ground, while he arranged both blankets in the form of a carpet, which touched the very rim of the water. Then he spoke to his well-trained horse, and the obedient animal walked from the water out upon the carpet of blankets. There the scout put on the animal’s hoofs the mufflers, and then commanded it to walk on, ordering it to stop when it had gone far enough.
“Now, Nomad,” he called, “ride old Nebby out upon this carpet, and when we’ve put the mufflers on him I think the trick will be nearly done.”
Nick Nomad complied, dismounting beside his horse on the blankets. The mufflers were put upon the hoofs of Nebuchadnezzar. Then the old man rode him on.
Buffalo Bill called his horse back to him, climbed into the saddle, stooped from the saddle, and picked the blankets from the ground, and called the trapper’s attention to the apparent success of the ruse.
The blankets and the muffled hoofs had prevented the showing of a single hoofmark by the margin of the stream. More than that, they had absorbed the water which ran from the legs of the horses, sucking it up as a sponge would, and holding it; so that not even water remained on the grass there to draw the attention of any eagle-eyed Blackfoot.
The scout and the trapper now rode their muffled horses into the thick grove, where they were completely hidden from view of any one passing along the cañon stream, or on either of its banks.
“Buffler,” said Nomad, filled with delight at the cleverness of his old pard, “ef I’d had head enough I might have thought o’ thet myself; but I didn’t. But I allow thet it’s ther cutest trick I ever saw played ter try ter fool Injuns. Whar’d yer learn it?”
“I thought of it myself just now. I don’t know that any one ever tried it before. And that’s what makes it valuable. If we used some trick that is familiar the Blackfeet would probably be expecting it, and so would not be fooled by it. They’ll not be expecting this trick, I hope.”
CHAPTER XVIII.
THE BLACKFOOT TRAILERS.
Under cover of the screening trees, Buffalo Bill and old Nomad watched the cañon and stream, while they talked of the threatened Blackfoot war, and of their individual experiences since they had last been together.