A few words more and they separated. Pawnee Brown was on his mettle and followed Yellow Elk's trail with all the keenness of an Indian himself. In half an hour he had reached the brook. Here he came to a series of rocks and was forced to come to a halt.
But not for long. Fording the water-course, he began a search which speedily revealed the trail again, leading to a small river a quarter of a mile further on.
He followed the river for less than fifty feet, when a number of voices broke upon his ears.
"I'm sure I saw the redskin on the river, and he had a girl with him, Ross."
"You must have been dreaming, Tucker. No red skins up here."
"All right, I know what I am talking about."
"I think I saw something, too," said a third voice, that of Skimmy, the calvaryman.
The three calvarymen were out on a scouting expedition, to learn if the boomers were in the vicinity of the river.
Tucker especially was on the lookout for Pawnee Brown, determined to bring the great scout down and thus win the reward Louis Vorlange had promised.
The scout listened to the talk of the cavalrymen for fully ten minutes with great interest.
He had just started to move on, satisfied that it would be of no benefit to remain longer, when Tucker
