My map proved utterly useless, confusing me by its wrong location of streams, and its inaccuracy in the estimation of distances.

We must have wandered far to the north from our direct course, led astray in the dark, and by our desire to advance swiftly.

For there soon came to us warning signs that we were indeed being pursued; and some evidence also that we were even within Indian territory.

Once we beheld from an eminence the wisp of a camp fire far in our rear, a mere misty curl of smoke showing against the distant blue of the sky.

And once, from out the shadow of a grove, we stared perplexed across a wide valley, to where appeared a dim outline of bluffs, and watched a party of five horsemen creep slowly along their summit, too far away to be recognized--mere black dots, we could not identify as either white men, or red.
But the savages had left their unmistakable mark for our finding.