“Are they fireflies, Dick?” questioned the other; “they seem to look like it at this distance; and yet I can see that they do not come and go, but keep up a steady light.”
“If you were closer, Roger, you would see that they were strange lightning-bugs; for each one is a torch gripped in the hand of a red-skinned warrior, who bends over and follows the trail we made!”
“Oh! then we didn’t start away from our second camp any too soon, did we, Dick?” exclaimed the younger lad, breathlessly, as he watched the lights that really did look like flickering fireflies in the distance.
“No; and now we’d better be getting off this high ground before they come close enough to discover us,” Dick remarked.
“But what is going to be the end of all this running about?” asked Roger. “Do we have to keep on the jump all night? See, the stars tell us it is even now close on midnight, for there is that other bright one just going to set. I’ve had two hours or more of sleep, but you haven’t yet closed your eyes, Dick.”
“Oh! there’s time enough for that after we’ve left these red rascals miles behind, Roger. Once we strike the level prairie it’s going to be a job urging our horses on by digging heels into their sides, much as I hate to do it. There is a limit to the distance even hardy braves can walk, following a trail by torchlight; and we’ll put a lot of ground between us before we rest.”
They found that it was not very difficult to pass down the other side of the slope, for their horses were sure-footed, and the way far from being impassable. And presently the bottom was gained.
Here there were a few scattered trees, that gradually the boys left behind, until presently the open prairie lay before them.
“Now to mount!” declared Dick, suiting the action to the word.