"It sounded to me like wheels."
"There it is again."
All listened attentively, and then one said:
"It is the wind in the pines."
The wind was rising and this solution of mysterious sound seemed to settle the matter, so all laid down in their blankets once more.
The man who had discovered the sound was the one to arise first in the morning, and the day was just dawning when he left his blankets, gazed about him, and then walked over to where the stage-trail ran, several hundred yards from their camp, and along through a bit of meadow-land.
He had hardly reached the trail when he gave a loud halloo, which brought his comrades from their blankets in an instant, and his call set them coming toward him at a run.
"Look there, pards!" he cried, and as each man reached his side he stood gazing down at the trail.
"The stage has gone by," said one, with an oath, as his eyes fell upon the tracks of the six horses and the wheel-marks, lately made.
"Then one man was bold enough to dare the drive at night!"