In this way she managed to go in quite a straight line but although she did not know it, yet she was heading in the wrong direction, and was going nearly east instead of south.
All day long she rode, keeping a good look-out, but late in the afternoon she felt that it was fated that she should spend another night alone. When she reached a “motte” of trees she resolved to camp here, as it was a great deal better than the open plain, and there was a cool spring in among the trees, too, and this the Donna and her horse attacked with a vigor which was sharpened by long thirsting.
Upon going to the edge of the grove to see the sunset, she was surprised and somewhat startled to see a band of horsemen coming toward the trees, directly from the west.
Who could they be? This was the question that the Donna asked herself, as her eyes first fell upon them.
Friends or foes, which?
She resolved to be ready for any emergency, however, and putting the saddle on the horse again she mounted him, and waited on the edge of the trees, anxious to know who the horsemen were. She had no fears of being captured, even should they prove to be Comanches. Her horse, though tired, could not be in a worse condition than those of the band coming toward her, and she could keep ahead of them until darkness came on, which would not be long for it was already getting dusk.
As the band of horsemen came closer, the Donna saw one thing and that was: they were following her trail.
This made her feel that they were her enemies, the Comanches, for what would her father and his men be doing away out here?
They would follow the trail left by Red Buffalo and his warriors when they had the Donna a captive.
The Donna could see one man dismount as dusk came on, and follow up her trail on foot, one of his comrades leading his horse by the bridle. Iola would have fled at once, but it seemed to her as though the men were not naked from the waist up.