Now there's
plenty snow."
So Blake's instructions were to follow them without pushing, to let them
feel they were being pursued, yet by no means to hasten them, and, if
the general's favorite scout proved to be all he promised as guide and
pathfinder, Webb might reasonably hope by dint of hard night riding, to
be first at the tryst at break of day. Then they would have the
retreating Sioux, hampered by their few wounded and certain prisoners
whom they prized, hemmed between rocky heights on every side, and sturdy
horsemen front and rear.
It was eight by the watch at the parting of the ways. It was 8:30 when
Blake retook the trail, with Sergeants Schreiber and Winsor, the latter
borrowed from Ray, far in the van. Even had the ground been hard and
stony these keen-eyed soldier scouts could have followed the signs
almost as unerringly as the Indians, for each had had long years of
experience all over the West; but, despite the steadily falling snow,
the traces of hoofs and, for a time, of _travois_ poles could be readily
seen and followed in the dim gray light of the blanketed skies.
Somewhere aloft, above the film of cloud, the silvery moon was shining,
and that was illumination more than enough for men of their years on the
trail.
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