He had ridden many miles without seeing any thing alive, except a few straggling buffalos and antelopes, and was on the point of returning towards the camp, when he descried some moving body on the sky–line in the eastern horizon: throwing himself from his horse, he adjusted his telescope, and fixing it on the object, ascertained at once that it was a large party of Indians on horseback. Although his glass was of excellent quality, they were so distant that he could not count them, but he was satisfied that they considerably exceeded a hundred. Observing that their course was directed westward, he was able, by descending an oblique ravine, to reach the edge of a copse which they were likely to pass at no great distance, whence, himself unseen, he might watch their movements, and form a more accurate estimate of their force. He had not been long stationed at the post which he had selected for this purpose, when the band came full in view on the ridge of a neighbouring hill. That it was a war–party of the Crows he could no longer doubt, as their dress and appearance were precisely the same, and they were following, with the faultless sagacity of a pack of blood–hounds, the trail which he and his companions had trodden on the preceding day. Being completely sheltered from their view by the copse, he was able to observe their movements, and to plan his own accordingly; he counted upwards of two hundred and fifty mounted warriors; and his impression was that their numbers amounted in all to nearly three hundred: they moved forward upon the trail at an even pace until they reached the brow of the hill, whence they could perceive, although at a considerable distance, the thicket in which the Delawares were encamped. Pausing here, they held a brief council: it was clear that they suspected that the above–named wood contained those of whom they were in pursuit; nor was it long before their lynx eyes detected a slight column of smoke curling up above the trees, on seeing which they shouted aloud, while their rapid and vehement gesticulations sufficiently explained to Reginald the discovery that they had made. It was evidently not the present intention of the Crows to make an open attack; for they now divided their force into two bands, each of which pursued its course along the back of the ridges which crowned the valley wherein the encampment lay, and thus they would be enabled to reach a point not far distant from their enemy on opposite sides, before their approach could be perceived.