ncertain footing
of the untrodden prairie would allow. At short intervals he would
dismount and crawl to the top of the hill in order to keep in touch
with the Indian, who was heading in pretty much the same direction as
himself. A little further on his screening hill began to flatten
itself out and finally it ran down into a wide valley which crossed
his direction at right angles. He made his horse lie down, still in the
shelter of the hill, and with most painful care he crawled on hands and
knees out to the open and secured a point of vantage from which he could
command the valley which ran southward for some miles till it, in turn,
was shut in by a further range of hills.

He was rewarded for his patience and care. Far down before him at the
bottom of the valley a line of cattle was visible and hurrying them
along a couple of Indian horsemen. As he lay watching these Indians he
observed that a little farther on this line was augmented by a similar
line from the east driven by the Indian he had first observed, and by
two others who emerged from a cross valley still further on. Prone upon
his face he lay, with his eyes on that double line of cattle and its
hustling drivers. The raid was surely on. What could one man do to check
it? Similar lines of cattle were coming down the different valleys and
would all mass upon the old Porcupine Trail and finally pour into the
Sun Dance with its many caves and canyons. There was much that was
mysterious in this movement still to Cameron. What could these Indians
do with this herd of cattle? The mere killing of them was in itself a
vast undertaking. He was perfectly familiar with the Indian's method of
turning buffalo meat, and later beef, into pemmican, but the killing,
and the dressing, and the rendering of the fat, and the preparing of the
bags, all this was an elaborate and laborious process. But one thing
was clear to his mind. At all costs he must get around the head of these
converging lines.

He waited there till the valley was clear of cattle and Indians, then,
mounting his horse, he pushed hard across the valley and struck a
parallel trail upon the farther side of the hills. Pursuing this trail
for some miles, he crossed still another range of hills farther to the
west and so proceeded till he came within touch of the broken country
that marks the division between the Foothills and the Mountains. He had
not many miles before him now, but his horse was failing fast and h