forward as hard
as we could go, turning a little out of our course to let the horsemen
who were coming pass us. "In another quarter of an hour they'll know all
about it, Rube. It will take them as much more to get ready and put the
dog on the track. They'll have some trouble in getting him to take up
our scent with all that blood in the room. I should say we may fairly
reckon on three-quarters of an hour before they're well out of the
camp." "That's about it," Rube said. "They will have to tie the dog, so
as not to lose him in the darkness. They won't gain on us very fast for
the next two hours; we can keep this up for that at a pinch. After that,
if we don't strike water, we are done for." "We passed a stream
yesterday, Rube; how far was it back?" "About an hour after daylight.
Yes, nearly three hours from camp. But we are going faster now than we
did then. We ought to do it in two hours." After this, we didn't say any
more. We wanted all our breath. It was well for us we had both been
tramping half our lives, and that our legs had saved our necks more
times than once on the prairies. We were both pretty confident we could
run sixteen miles in two hours. But we dared not run straight. We knew
that if they found we were keeping a line, they would let the dog go
their best pace and gallop alongside; so we had to zigzag, sometimes
going almost back upon our own track. We did not do this so often as we
should have done if we had had more time.'

'But how did you know which way to go, Seth?' Hubert asked.

'We went by the stars,' Seth said. 'It was easier than it would have
been by day, for when the sun's right overhead, it ain't a very
straightforward matter to know how you are going; but there would be no
difficulty then to scouts like Rube and me. Well, we had run, may-be, an
hour and a quarter when we heard a faint, short bark far behind. "The
brute is on our trail," Rube said; "they haven't given us so much start
as I looked for. Another half hour and he will be at our heels sure
enough." I felt this was true, and felt very bad-like for a bit. In
another quarter of an hour the bark was a good bit nearer, and we
couldn't go no faster than we were going. All of a sudden I said to
Rube, "Rube, I've heard them dogs lose their smell if they taste blood.
Let's try it; it's our only chance. Here, give me a cut in the arm, I
can spare it better than you can; you lost a lot to-night from that
cut." We stopped a minute. I tore