“At daybreak they will separate to seek our trail. They will search all day, but will not find it; their horses will then be dead tired; they will rest, but they will not give up the attempt to overtake us. As we have not been found in front or to the right or left, they will determine to seek us on the back trail; but they will not have come to that decision until to-morrow evening, when their horses will be useless for pursuit.
“On to-morrow evening at nightfall we will start from here with horses all fresh, and we will direct our course to the right of the line we followed when leaving the camp. So as to hit off the buffalo two days from here. We will travel all night, change saddles at daybreak, and travel all day to-morrow; by that time we should be far away from our pursuers.”
Soon the evening hour drew on. The short twilight rapidly deepened into night, and as the last glimmer of light vanished, the plan was put into operation. Turning sharp to the left, we plunged down amid some broken ground that led to the ravine by the stream, and were soon securely ensconced amid the bluffs and rocks that fringed its lowest levels.
It was a dark moonless night, and once amid the broken ground all objects became a shapeless blank.
The Sioux pulled up as soon as he found himself at the bottom of the ravine. He dismounted, and gave me his horse and the larêt which ran through the bits of the three he led.
“I will go back on foot and lie near the trail,” he said. “Sit you down here until I return.” So saying he vanished on foot into the darkness, and reaching the neighbourhood of his former trail, lay down in the grass to watch.
He had not long to wait.
Through the gloom there suddenly passed, riding at a hard pace, a body of men. They had swept by almost as soon as the keen ear of the Sioux had detected their approach, and quick as they had come they were gone.
The Sioux came back to the ravine and the night passed slowly away.
When dawn revealed the features of the surrounding neighbourhood, we moved into a more sheltered position, where, amid rock and bushes, we remained perfectly screened even from any observer who might have stood at the edge of the ravine. Here during the day we relieved each other in the work of allowing the horses to graze with a larêt passing from one to another.