ands, and that they had gone to get a reinforcement to
overpower us, but upon a closer examination of the track, I came at once
to the solution of the mystery. I remarked that on the print left by the
shoes, the places upon which the head of the nails should have pressed
deeper, were, on the contrary, convex, the shoes were, therefore, not
fixed by nails; and my suspicions being awakened, I soon spied upon a
soft sandy spot, through which the track passed, that there was
something trailing from the left hind foot, and I satisfied myself that
this last slight mark was made by a piece of twine. A little afterwards
I remarked that on the softer parts of the ground, and two or three
inches behind and before the horse-shoe prints, were two circular
impressions, which I ascertained to be the heel and the toe-marks left
by a man's mocassins.

The mystery was revealed. We had never searched our prisoners, one of
whom must have had some of the shoes taken off the horses, which shoes,
in these districts, are very valuable, as they cannot be replaced.
Having tried in vain to catch some of our horses, they had washed out
the tracks in the creek, and had fixed the horse-shoes to their own feet
with pieces of twine; after which, putting themselves in a line at the
required distance one from the other, they had started off, both with
the same foot, imitating thus the pacing of a swift horse.

The plan was cunning enough, and proved that the blackguards were no
novices in their profession, but they had not yet sufficiently acquired
that peculiar tact natural to savage life. Had they been Indians, they
would have fixed small pieces of wood into the holes of the shoe to
imitate the nails, and they would then have escaped. We returned to the
camp to arm ourselves, and the lawyers, wishing to recover our
confidence, entreated that they might be permitted to chase and
recapture the fellows. At noon they returned quite exhausted, but they
had been successful; the prisoners were now bound hand and foot, and
also tied by the waist to a young pine, which we felled for the purpose.
It was useless to travel further on that day, as the lawyers' horses
were quite blown, and having now plenty of ammunition, some of us went
in pursuit of turkeys and pheasants, for a day or two's provisions. All
my efforts to obtain information from the prisoners were vain. To my
inquiries as to what direction lay the settlements, I received
no answer.

Towards eve