CHAPTER VIII
THE TRACK OF THE MARKED HOOF
"WHAT'S gone wrong, Roger?"
"Our packhorse has disappeared in the night; I've looked high and lowfor him, Dick, but it's no use."
"Did you hobble him the way we had the other animals fixed?" asked theother lad.
"Yes, but you know he always had a habit of straying farther thaneither of the riding horses; and the chances are he's gone so far nowthat he doesn't know the way back. What will we do about it, Dick; waitover and spend the best part of a day looking for him; or divide up thestuff, and get on?"
Impatient Roger undoubtedly would be for the latter method of solvingthe question, if left to his own devices. He was already tired of theslow progress they seemed to have been making in all these weeks theyhad been on the go.
"Well, in the first place," began Dick, "we ought to make some sort ofa hunt for the packhorse. We've managed to keep him with us so far,after some narrow shaves, and it would be a great pity to let him gojust because we didn't want to take the trouble to look him up."
"But," objected the other, "he may be miles away from here by now."
"Very well, Roger; if we find that such is the case we can give thehunt up, and do the next best thing. But let's start out, and see wherehis tracks lead."
"But how are we to know which are the tracks of the led animal, Dick?"queried Roger. "Horses' hoofs are pretty much the same, seems to me."
"Well, yes, as a rule that is so," came the reply, with a confidentsmile; "but in this case it happens that old Peter had a chip knockedfrom the outside edge of his off hind hoof, which always left a mark Icould tell. I've noticed it about a hundred times, and always thoughtthat, if the old stray ever did get away, from us, with the stuff onhis back, we could easily follow his trail."
"It takes you to notice all those things, Dick; and yet I have a goodpair of eyes, too," observed Roger, thoughtfully.
"As good as mine, and perhaps better, Roger; but the trouble is youseldom use them as much as you might. But come, let us start out andsee what there is to be found. And look for the track with the outeredge sheared off."
The two boys had been in camp in a little depression on the bank of theriver, which they had reached on the preceding afternoon.
At the time, the day had not been so far advanced but that they couldhave gone a few miles farther; but as soon as Dick had seen thiscamping place he had surprised and partly dismayed the eager Roger byexpressing a desire to put in the night there.
The reason for this became manifest later on, when he showed hiscompanion unmistakable signs to prove that the expedition they werefollowing had, in fact, tied up there for the night. There werenumerous indications to prove this--tracks of white men's shoes, andthe moccasins of the guides and trappers accompanying the soldiers; aswell as the hoof prints of the horses.
Of course, when he learned this fact Roger was reconciled to wastinga little of their precious time. He knew that they could discover avariety of things while camping in the same place that those whopreceded them had occupied.
And, after a careful examination of the signs, with a remembrance ofthe fact that quite a heavy rain had fallen two weeks before, whichwould have washed away any tracks made before its coming, both boyswere convinced that the expedition must have camped here after thatstorm.
This was most important to the boys. It assured them that they hadgained remarkably on Captain Lewis and his company, who had had such along start of them. If the expedition had been here within two weeks,their chances of overtaking it were excellent. Perhaps in another week,or two at least, they might expect to come upon the boats.
That anticipation had made Roger unusually cheerful all through thepreceding night. Indeed, he even found difficulty in sleeping, and hadbeen on his feet numerous times after they lay down in their blanketsunder the shelter of the tent.
And now a new source of trouble had come upon them. Old Peter, thepackhorse, had a habit of wandering off; and on several other occasionsRoger had been compelled to hunt for him in the morning; but this timehe seemed to have disappeared for good.
Of course both lads took their rifles with them when leaving camp. Inthose early days, when one's life often depended on prompt action,and also on having the means of defence handy, men and boys neverneglected to keep their firearms where they could lay a hand on themat a second's warning. Even when they slept, Dick and his cousin kepttheir guns close by, with a protecting arm generally thrown over them,for they looked upon these weapons as their best, indeed only, friendsin this wild country.
It took Dick but a minute or two to circle around just outside thecamp, and find the track of the broken hoof. Just as he expected, itsoon began to edge away from camp. Old Peter was evidently up to histricks again, and the grass must have seemed sweeter to him the furtherhe could roam away from the spot where the tent had been pitched.
They followed the trail for a few minutes. Then Dick came to a pause,and, screening his eyes with his hand, looked keenly around.
"See any sign of the old rascal?" asked Roger.
"I must say I don't," came the answer; "and, to tell the truth, Ihardly like the idea of wandering so far away from camp. While we aregone some one might come along and steal everything we own--horses,outfit and all."
"That would be a tough deal for us, Dick," remarked the other; "and forone I don't think it would pay us to take the chance for the sake ofsuch an old horse as Peter. But what shall we do?"
"Go back and get our breakfast," answered Dick, promptly, as though hehad been making up his mind while they hunted for the tracks; "then, ifhe doesn't show up, we can load the stuff on both our horses, and startout."
"But that would be a pretty uncomfortable way of doing, I'd say,"objected Roger, who did not like the thought of riding perched on topof the folded tent, and with all manner of other things around him.
"Oh! I don't mean to try it long," the other hastened to reply. "Yousee, it happens that the trail leads up-river, so we could keep onfollowing it, and not leave our stuff unprotected. Then, if we foundPeter, it would be all right; and, on the other hand, if we didn't,and had to give him up, I've a notion we'd better get rid of a fewthings like the tent, and go on our journey lighter."
"It is pretty old, for a fact, and clumsy, too. When that Indian bravesold the tent to us, he played a smart trick, for the skins had beenexposed so long to sun and rain and wind that they were getting weak. Iwon't be sorry to see the old affair kicked out. We're used to sleepingon the ground, and if it rains we can make a shelter out of branches,or find a hole in the rocks."
"Perhaps a hollow tree," added Dick, laughingly, as they turned backtoward camp.
"Oh, well, in that case we'll try to make sure it doesn't happen to bethe den of a bear," observed the other. "Every time I think of thatfellow about to drop down on us, it gives me the shivers."
On reaching the camp they hurried preparations for breakfast. It wasalways a simple meal, consisting of some meat or fish, cooked over thesmall fire they had burning, and a dish of tea, of which both boyshappened to be very fond. Coffee in those early days was almost anunknown luxury among the Western pioneers along the Missouri.
When they had partaken of this frugal but satisfying meal, the boysstarted to take down the skin tent which had been the subject ofRoger's remarks. It was an old Indian lodge, and, while the figures ofanimals and hunting scenes that once decorated its sides were prettywell faded, enough remained to interest the boys from time to time,and cause more or less speculation as to what they were intended torepresent.
After they had managed to load all their possessions on the backs ofthe two riding horses, much to the surprise of the animals, they saidgood-by to their night's camp, and once more started off, heading intothe northwest, and following the river.
Thus far much of their journey had been over the level plains, althoughfrom time to time they had been in the country of hills and forests, aswell as rocky sections.
I
t happened that they were just then in a region where the woods camedown to the banks of the river; and in the open places grew the grassupon which the hobbled horses had fed during the night.
Neither of the boys thought to climb into their saddles while followingthe marked trail of the missing packhorse; indeed, that would havebeen next door to an impossibility, with all those traps piled highon the animals' backs. They walked along ahead of the horses, keepingtheir eyes for the most part on the trail.
"The old sinner, to think that he'd wander all this way from where theothers put in the night," Roger remarked, when they had kept on foralmost ten minutes.
"Still, he doesn't show up ahead, as far as I can see," Dick observed,"and, if we fail to sight him soon, we'll have to say good-by to Peter,because he's beginning to bear away from the river, and we don't wantto spend a whole day looking for a poor old packhorse which we'd soonlose, I reckon, anyway, when we get in the region of the hostileIndians."
He had hardly said this when he threw up his hand.
"Stop a minute, Roger," said Dick, bending down, as though he had madea discovery that aroused his deepest interest.
"What have you found--did Peter break his hobble rope? For I notice youhave picked up a piece of it, Dick."
"Look closer, and you will see that it has been cut by somethingsharp, which I should say must have been a knife," the other went on,hurriedly, yet with conviction in his voice; "and, Roger, we might aswell make up our minds that Peter is gone for good, because here arethe imprints of moccasins in the soft earth; an Indian must have runacross our packhorse, and carried him off!"
The Pioneer Boys of the Missouri; or, In the Country of the Sioux Page 11