At least, we will choose that direction and I will take one side of the bank and you the other." They followed the brook more than a mile with questing eyes, and Tayoga detected the point at which Willet had emerged, plunging anew into the forest.
"Warriors, if they had picked up his trail, could have followed the brook as we did," said Robert.
"Of course," said Tayoga, "but the object of the Great Bear was not so much to hide his flight as to gain time.

While we went slowly, looking for the emergence of his trail, he went fast.

Now I think he meant to spend the night in the woods alone.

The rangers must still have been far away.

If they had been near he would not have felt the need of throwing off possible pursuit." They followed the dim traces several hours, and then Tayoga announced with certainty that the hunter had slept alone in the forest, wrapped in his blanket.
"He crept into this dense clump of bushes," he said, "and lay within their heart, sheltered and hidden by them.