for ten feet on all sides of you.
When our heavy column crossed the ford and climbed this bank, it shook
the earth, and that was what set the sand to running down into the
tracks."

"I declare!" exclaimed Bob, gazing admiringly at his friend; "is there
anything a trailer isn't obliged to know?"

"If he wants to be an expert he must keep his eyes and ears wide open,
and pay strict attention to little things which almost anybody else
would consider to be beneath his notice. It is wonderful what
proficiency a person who has a talent for such things can acquire by
practice. For example, this scout of ours could learn more about a trail
in two minutes than I could in an hour. But he is fearfully jealous,"
added George with a laugh, "and you ought to have seen how mad I made
him while we were passing through that belt of post-oaks this afternoon.
Seeing that Captain Clinton was waiting very impatiently for
information, I volunteered the statement that the hostiles had passed
that way early on Thursday morning, and that Mr. Wentworth was not the
only one who had suffered at their hands. The captain asked Mose what he
thought of that, and Mose replied, 'I think jest this here, cap: if that
kid is agoin' to lead this yere party he had better say so, an' I will
go back to the post. He's a'most too fresh, an' he'd better go back in
the woods an' practise at holdin' his chin.' But he did not contradict
my statement, and that was all the evidence I needed to prove that I was
right in what I said. The tracks here on the bank are not as fresh as
you suppose. If they were wet, it would be a sign that the Indians
crossed the ford since three o'clock this afternoon."

"Why since three o'clock?" asked Bob.

"Because the sun went under a cloud at that hour, and hasn't showed
himself since to dry off the water that the horses and cattle brought
out of the stream on their feet and legs."

While the two boys were talking in this way George was getting ready to
go to bed. The camp was located at the foot of a perpendicular bluff
which was perhaps twenty feet in height. On the top of this bluff the
horses were picketed, and beyond them were the sentinels who were to
look out for the safety of the animals and keep guard over their
slumbering companions. Everything outside of the circle of light made by
the camp-fires was concealed by the most intense darkness. Not even a
star twinkled in the sky. George spread his blankets in a sheltered no