As it was a question that could not be answered, the scout did not try to reply, but, standing on the rock by the sandy depression, he signaled to Nick Nomad to bring down the horses. Nomad was seen to shake his head lugubriously; but he got up the horses, and began to pack the camp kit and other belongings, after having saddled and bridled the animals. Having seen the old trapper begin this, Buffalo Bill went on with the work in hand, accompanied by Wild Bill, who made a running fire of comment in low tones, with now and then a characteristic humorous expression. “What about Little Cayuse and the ’Paches?” Hickok asked after a while. “It’s no use to argue with them now. When he sees the horses packed and the camp abandoned, Little Cayuse will come on; and you may be sure the ’Paches will trail along not far behind him, in spite of their fears. You see, Hickok, they’ll be more afraid to stay behind than to go ahead; to be with us gives them a sense of protection they can’t have when by themselves. Yet they’re not cowards; they’re simply superstitious, and scared by their superstition.” “The same as Nomad?” “Yes; only Nomad will listen to reason sooner than the reds. You can see that he’s bringing the horses down now.” When they had followed the strange trail over the rocks for some distance, finding it anything but easy work, as at times there was not a thing to be seen and even the direction had to be reasoned out, they came down from the rocky hill to a stretch of sand, which reached on in a narrow valley toward the mountain which had shown the black head. The big tracks, seen only twice before, were here plainer than print, where they entered and continued on the sandy area. “The fellow was no giant, anyway,” said Buffalo Bill, looking at the big footprints. “No? How do you make that out?” “The tracks are too close together, you will observe. We may rightly suppose that a giant with feet as big as those tracks indicate would have long legs, in proportion, and would take long steps; but you can see that the steps are only about as far apart as they would be if made by an ordinary man; in fact, either you or I would step farther. The fellow had big, heavy feet, or wore large and heavy shoes, that is shown by the way he scraped his feet along, as if they were too heavy to lift out of the sand. Right out there, I judge, he broke into a run, from the way the tracks look.” “Right, Cody!” assented Wild Bill. “You don’t need any Apaches to trail round and play Eliza’s bloodhounds for you; you’re fully equal to that trick yourself.” Without waiting at the edge of the sandy plain for the arrival of Nomad and the horses, they continued to follow the big tracks, and as a result soon made another discovery. A horse had come down out of the edge of the hills and crossed the narrow plain here, going in the direction of the mountain; and the man with the big feet had apparently followed it.