Wharton beckoned to him to wait, and they hurried forward. Pointing to the hoofprints, clearly showing in the earth, he asked: "What do they mean, Arqu-wao?" The Shawanoe merely glanced at the ground. He had noticed the signs before, and it was not necessary for him to scrutinize or study them in order to know what the youth meant. "Horses--so many," he said, holding up two fingers of his hand. "How long ago did they pass this way?" While the Indian understood the question, he was puzzled for a moment as to how to make an intelligent answer. He fixed his keen black eyes on the face of the questioner, then looked around the trees as if searching for some aid. These shut out the sun, but it was easy to locate the orb about one-third of the way between the horizon and the zenith. He had struck the key. "When sun dere," he replied, pointing low down in the sky, "den men ride along on horses." Wharton Edwards's heart gave a painful start. Of course the Shawanoe could not know that one of the horses carried a woman instead of a man, nor, with all the woodcraft of the American Indian, could he determine within an hour or two the time when the animals had passed along the trail, but he did know of a verity that the passage had taken place since the sun went down on the night before. Understanding, now, the precise distance to the block-house, and the strong probability that the parties would not leave there in the night time, and well aware, also, from the marks of the hoofprints, that the horses were walking at a leisurely pace, it became an easy matter for him to tell at what time they were due at this particular spot. He had indicated the hour, which was another evidence that the boys were at no great distance from their destination. "We don't want to go to the block-house," said Wharton, impetuously. "We want to travel the other way. We must overtake those horsemen before they reach the falls." CHAPTER XXV. A SINGULAR MEETING. The paint on the face of the Shawanoe could not hide the astonishment caused by the words of Wharton Edwards. Despite the askew brain, the Indian was wonderfully shrewd in some respects. "Go after dem--den be killed." "Why will we be killed?" "Shaw'noe wait for dem--bimeby dey shoot--both fall off horse--Shaw'noe take scalp--you go dere--take your scalp." "Arqu-wao," said the distressed youth, stepping in front of the red man, "those horses are ridden by my father and mother; they are on their way to the settlement; we started out to come home with them; we must save them; we will do so or die with them." These words, uttered with a depth of feeling hard to describe, were understood by the Shawanoe. He comprehended on the instant that the couple on horseback were so far along the trail that it was impossible for the two boys on foot to overtake them. Such was the fact concerning the elder of the two, but he probably would have changed his mind had he been aware of the fleetness of the younger one.