“Oh! all right,” mumbled the fat boy; “I’ll keep my gun handy, and if anything comes along to bother me, why, I’ll let you know. But when you hear me give a cooee, just trot this way, because I’d hate to have to eat all this breakfast by myself.” They assured him that there was no chance of such a dreadful catastrophe happening; and then, taking their guns with them, started off to scout around the spot where, according to Donald, the Indian had been at the time the shot came. “See here, you can make out where he crawled along, for his toes made a track; and here’s where his knee knuckled down in the earth,” Adrian quickly remarked as they bent low over the ground, the better to pick up the signs. “Right you are,” echoed Donald, coming to his side immediately; “and if ever you felt inclined to wonder whether I dreamed all that about the young buck over here, I reckon now you know it was real, don’t you, Ad?” “I never doubted it in the beginning,” replied the other; “because I knew you weren’t given to such things. And then, besides, I heard both the shot, and that screech after it. What have you found now, Donald?” “The plain imprint of a moccasin,” came from the other boy. “Looks like this is where he jumped to his feet after that shot came that winged him, for you can see that it heads back and away from our camp. Yes, and here are specks of dried blood on this rock.” “Yes, and notice the smartness of them, would you, creeping up to leeward of our camp, so the horses couldn’t scent them?” Adrian went on to say. “You ought to know the mark of a moccasin pretty well, Donald; how about this one?” “Made by an Apache squaw, for a cooky, I’d take my affidavy on that,” the ranchman’s son decided, after minutely examining the imprint; for different tribes have their own way of making elk-skin foot gear, so that it is not a difficult task, under ordinary circumstances, to recognize these peculiar characteristics. A minute later and they stood on the spot where, according to Donald, the wounded brave had managed to straddle a pony, and make off with his friends. “Just three of them, and all young bucks,” Donald decided, after he had carefully inspected the marks around them. With that amount of knowledge they had to rest content; because it would have been foolish to think of following the would-be horse thieves, even had they not promised Billie not to go outside of sight of the tent. Accordingly they turned back, and arrived at the camp just as the cook was getting his lips pursed up so as to give vent to a loud “cooee,” that was to serve as notice that breakfast was awaiting their attention; and how any mortal boy could linger after that, Billie would never be able to understand, judging others by his own standard.