“Deerfoot will walk,” he calmly said. “He has done so many times. He will not grow tired as soon as the horses. Let us go forward.” To show that the question was settled he strode off across the prairie, carrying his rifle in a trailing position and stepping with his elastic gait, which he could maintain hour after hour without fatigue. Moreover, it would have been no hardship for him to strike into a lope which would have kept the animals at a trot throughout the day. You know that a man, trained to the exercise, can walk farther than a horse, and no person was ever better trained than the young Shawanoe. The oppression caused by his loss showed itself for a long time. He held his place in advance of the others, rarely speaking and often acting as if unaware that he had companions with him. They respected his moods, and though they chatted among themselves, said little or nothing to him. About the middle of the afternoon the boys descried an object in the horizon to the northeast, which at first they took to be a white cloud heaped against the sky. But its stationary position and its peculiar form revealed that it was a mountain peak whose summit was covered with snow. Seen against the sky it had a soft bluish tint which made it a most striking figure in the landscape. The clear air of these regions makes distances deceptive, objects seeming to be much nearer the spectator than they are. When Victor said he thought they might camp that night at its base, the Blackfoot told him that by traveling all of next day they would hardly be able to reach the mountain, which is one of the loftiest of that section. The truth of Mul-tal-la’s words was evident when, after fully four hours of brisk walking, they camped on the bank of a small creek and saw the sun sink behind the mountain peak, which appeared to be as far away as ever. The plain was still treeless, and the fire kindled on the gently sloping bank was of dry buffalo chips such as had already done them service. Before daylight had departed the horizon was scanned with the aid of the spyglass without discovering anything of an unusual character. It was the turn of the red men to act as sentinels, and Deerfoot quietly said that he would take the first watch, calling the Blackfoot when he thought proper. As usual, he read a chapter from his Bible. After he had finished and the devotions of all were over, he again took out the book, placing himself so that enough light fell upon the pages to permit him to read. The last sight that the boys had of him was in this motionless posture and occasionally turning a leaf. Thus he sat when the three sank into restful slumber. The succulent grass was so abundant that the horses, relieved of saddles, bridles and burdens, were left free to crop as long as they chose and to sleep when the notion came to them.