On examination Wetzel discovered in the moss two moccasin tracks.

Two Indians had passed that point that morning.

They were going northwest directly toward the camp of Wingenund.

Wetzel stuck close to the trail all that day and an hour before dusk he heard the sharp crack of a rifle.

A moment afterward a doe came crashing through the thicket to Wetzel's right and bounding across a little brook she disappeared.
A tree with a bushy, leafy top had been uprooted by a storm and had fallen across the stream at this point.