I think the trail can't be more than fifteen miles off," said Thurstane, when he had found that his comrade still breathed.
We shall have to get those fellows off that trail and put them across the Bernalillo route," said Coronado to Garcia.
But Sergeant Weber was an old hand on the Plains, and notwithstanding the darkness and the generally stony nature of the ground, he presently discovered that the fresh trail of the wagons was missing.
Coronado had just finished his round when a loud yell was raised by the Apaches, and twenty or thirty of them started at full speed down the trail by which the caravan had come.
To the left glittered the river; but the trail did not turn in that direction; it led straight at the bluff in the elbow of the current.
If, at the commencement of one of these mighty grooves, you took the wrong side, you could not regain the trail without returning to the point of error, for crossing was impossible.
Henceforward the trail followed Bill Williams's river to the Colorado, tracked that stream northward to the Mohave valley, and, crossing there, took the line of the Mohave river toward California.
He would have started homeward, but the country was a complete desert, the trail led here and there over vast sheets of trackless rock, and he feared that he might lose his way.
He knew that, after leaving Cactus Pass, the overland trailturns southward and runs toward the mouth of the Gila, crossing the Colorado hundreds of miles away.
Walking with Coronado to the brink of the colossal terrace, and sheltering himself from the view of the rest of the party, he scanned the trail with his glass.
The trail made straight for the pueblos, but it was almost impassable to wagons, and progress was very slow.
The chief and several others accompanied the cavalcade for eight or ten miles in order to set it on the right trail for the river.
We could do it, if we took Miss Paulette and hit the trail to-night.
It was without a track of any sort, after the lake trail ended, that she and I stopped in the thick spruces and put on our snowshoes for the last lap of the way to Skunk's Misery.
Some kind of a trail we must leave to Skunk's Misery, but it need not begin here, in the first place Macartney would look, if he were alive to look anywhere.
I wanted to get away from there, quickly; leaving no more trail than was necessary.
The trail was for the most part smooth and uneventful, but here and there the wheels of the democrat dipped into a gopher hole, causing anxiety and discomfort, especially to those in the back seat.
They followed a trail well-known to Howard who had ridden the range, in this district for several years.
I took the Indian trail all the way, and most of the time kept near the banks of the Running Water River.
About half a mile from the trail I found a small ravine in which there was a quantity of dry leaves under some large trees.
He could barely see the white ant-hills close around him, and of course the trail he had needs still follow would be undistinguishable.
There was no need for longer doubt or hesitation, he could not do better than take the trail of the chase backward; and back on it he went.
Now he knew better; and without further delay, wheeled his horse round, and struck along the trail backward.
Little brown animals of the bear family were especially ubiquitous, so that our time was kept rather fully employed on our long trail towards the supposed land of El Dorado.
We picked up the trailwhere I had left it--at the edge of the wood; but here our difficulty began, it being broken and indistinct, owing to the leaves which the snow was not thick enough to cover.
The trail was of the shortest and landed them on a well-beaten Maori track leading up through the bush.
And everytrail which they followed to find their way out of the darkness led only to greater darkness and denser fogs.
When a man like Shears is on a trail, we may take it that he is bound to follow that trail to the end.
Amid the thousand intersecting paths in the great, gloomy forest, he had found the first sign of a trail followed by the enemy!
After taking the claws of the bear to make a necklace for himself, they started down the trail in their homeward journey.
A few bones of the little gazelle were among the remains, and a heavy buffalo trail cut the mountains where once the buffalo passed through this land out onto the Yellowstone.
He turned down the trail and soon returned with three good looking packs, well loaded.
The wild and savage Sioux knew no fear and were pressing up the narrow trail with war paint and feathers, their grim visages scowling in the sunlight as they came.
Soon he came to the snow line, where the trail became more precipitous and the snow deeper.
Fascinated, I listened, oblivious to everything but her story, which I shall have to put into my own words: "Swift as the mountain ram he climbs the rugged rocks and takes the trail to the great shrine wheel.
As we swung down the trail which passed near his cabin door, we were hailed by the old veteran, coming wet from his claim with a pan of sand, which showed many grains of bright gold.
Our people had great masses of rock as large as houses, where they could let them loose down the trail and crush the Sioux into the earth as they were all down in a deep canyon.
When, however, the sky was overcast with grey clouds of morning and I felt chilly after bathing, I would often start to walk at random through the fields and woods, and joyously trail my wet boots in the fresh dew.
Although, too, he seemed to think nothing of himself (a trail which always pleased me in people), it was clear that he never let his brain rest.
Sometimes a whole bunch of them would thunder along in a stampede ahead of us till they came to a cross-trail or to a farmyard; there we left them behind.
On Thursday, a report came in that the trail across the wild land west of Bell's corner was closed completely--in fact, would be impassable for the rest of the winter.
The trailwas good: that just about summarizes what I remember of the road.
I wished for a cross-trail to appear, so it would be relieved of its panic; and at last there came one, too, which it promptly took.
No doubt, unless we had entirely strayed from our road, we were by this time riding the last dam; for no other trail over which we went was quite so rough.
I had had as much or more of unbrokentrail to-day as on the day before.
But then the turn into the bushytrail was reached.
The trail winds around, for it is a logging trail, leading up to the best bluffs, which are ruthlessly cut down by the fuel-hunters.
They had made the trail for me on these three miles, and even for a matter of four or five miles south of the church, as I found out.
This trailneeds to be looked for even in daytime, and I was to find it at night!
The evils of which I have been speaking have long since passed away, but they have left a trail of bitter feeling that still survives.
Men like Mr. Dicey may build up theories of their own on what, to the Englishman at home, may seem at least plausible arguments, but they are only drawing herrings across the trail of the true explanation.
Like all storms it had left a trail of damage, but it had to some extent cleared the air.
Few yards oftrail but had their distinguishable scent, whether violent, acrid smell or delectable fragrance.
The animal trail was trod now and then by Indian hunters, and lately we had passed several times.
Where the open trail skirted a hillside we came suddenly upon a great gathering of these goat-suckers, engaged in some strange midnight revel.
It is your book which has set me on the trail of these old memories.
III Along the moonlit trail there came wavering whiffs of orchids, ranging from attar of roses and carnations to the pungence of carrion, the latter doubtless distilled from as delicate and as beautiful blossoms as the former.
The trail ahead was either black, or a solid sheet of light.
At a turn in the trail we squatted and waited for what the jungle might send of sight or sound.
The letters in his little pack were from husbands to wives, and they must travel a hundred miles of forest-trail in time of war.
Within sight of the first turn a great black branch of a tree had recently fallen across the trail in a patch of moonlight.
Manifestly, thetrail of the serpent was over them, too.
Its progress seemed no faster than the hour hand of a watch, but we knew that it moved, yet so close to the white sand that the whole trail seemed to move with it.
All my search for him had been in vain thus far, though I had been so close upon his trail as to have seen fresh blood.
Once more, as on the trail at Le Pas, he felt the sweet pressure of her lips.
He believed that it would be easy to overcome Croisset, to force him to follow in the trail of Meleese and Jackpine.
As coolly as though he were not more than a chunk of stovewood, Croisset and the Indian came through the bushes, seized him by the head and feet, carried him out into the trail and laid him lengthwise on the sledge.
They have turned off into another trail to the east, M'seur.
After their second meal the journey was resumed, and by referring occasionally to his compass Howland observed that the trail was swinging gradually to the eastward.
They had covered less than half of the distance to the caribou trail when in a small open space free of bush Croisset's voice rose sharply and the team stopped.
If they do not run across our trail by that time, M'seur, we shall be safe.
This time she responded with an emphatic negative shake of her head, at the same time pointing with her free hand to the well-defined trail that wound up from the ferry landing into the forest.
Since the big snow, which had fallen four feet deep ten days before, a forest man had now and then used this trail on his way down to the edge of civilization; but none from Prince Albert had traveled it in the other direction.
Half a pistol shot down the trail he saw indistinctly the twisting of black objects in the snow, and as he stared one of the objects came toward him.
That the hound was tired I felt sure; but that he was on the trail of a fox I could not believe; and I was watching him curiously when something stirred on the top of the ridge almost beside me.
A human mote, so smothered in the Arctic dark and storm, so wide of the utmost shore of men, by a trail so far and filled and faint that only God can follow!
Then both men came out with the dog, the trainer starting him on the trail and following on after him as fast as he could break his way through the woods.
Those dogs hit the plain trail in the road with a burst of noise and speed that carried them through the cut below me in a howling gale, a whirlwind of dust, and down the hill and on.
No, sir, it's the same spirit that haunts the trail from Vernon, Texas, to Coffeyville.
Seven hours brought him to a lonely wagon-trail called Ozark Lodge because after winding among hills several miles it at last reached the clubhouse of that name overlooking the lake.
Before final darkness came, the trail itself was varicolored, sometimes white with alkali, sometimes skirting low hills whose sides showed a deep blue, streaked with crimson.
As darkness increased, the trail seemed to waver before their eyes like a gray scarf that the wind stirs on the ground.
After a pause, Willock suggested that Wilfred wait for one more letter from Lahoma, provided it come within the next twenty-four hours, then start up the trail for Chickasha and board the train for Kansas.
Then he said he guessed we hadn't ever met unless accidentally on thetrail somewhere, as he had once been down in Texas,--and that was all.
Side by side they slowly ventured from the trail into the invisible country on the left.
If we get into the trail before that coach starts, we'll have to put on all speed.
Lahoma severely, staring down at the dark blur on the trail which her imagination correctly interpreted as the horse stretched out on its side.
Suddenly the horse held by Lahoma gave a plunge, broke away and went galloping back over the trail they had traversed, pursued by Lahoma's cry of dismay.
What I want you to talk about is that little girl you met on the trail down in Texas, seven years ago.
He would be wise enough to keep them both safe even from other men, and so, along the trail towards the ranch, the chestnut ran with a gait as gentle as the swing and light fall of a ground swell in mid-ocean.
He had seen the trail looping around the spot where the rattler's length had been coiled in the sand, or where a tentative hoof had opened the squirrel's hole.
And Alcatraz, feeling the trailof the finger tips across the velvet skin of his muzzle, agreed.
The trail tangled into zigzag lines, tossing up and down, dodging here and there.
Mister Squirrel's tail is chopped plumb in two and then he ducks down his hole by the side of the trail and we hear him squealing and chattering cusswords at us.
Like a good general, he kept the minds of his followers from growing tense by deftly turning the talk, on the way, to other topics, as they swung off the east trail towards Glosterville and journeyed due north over the rolling foothills.
For this trail there was needed a spirit as much superior to other men in tireless endurance and in speed as Alcatraz was superior to other horses.
She had turned the bay towards the home-trail when something subconsciously noted made her glance over her shoulder.
Swinging the gun to the left he caught Alcatraz full in the readly circle of the sights and over his set teeth the lips curled in a smile; the trail had ended!
In fact, not one of them was peculiarly keen to follow such a trail as this in the darkness.
And you get the smell of the pines the minute the trail starts climbing.
It'll be a long trail and a tolerable lonely one, most like.
Once on the war trail the detachment fell into Indian file, the deepest silence prevailed in the ranks, and they advanced rapidly in the direction of the forest.
My brother knows how to discover a trail better than anyone," he said.
Small parties of warriors were going off in different directions, some to indulge in the pleasures of the chase, others to beat the forest and be certain that there was no enemy's trail in the vicinity of the village.
The trail from the Cimarron to Little Turkey Creek, where we were now camped, had originally been to the east of the present one, skirting a black-jack country.
A trail made by two horses had left this camp, and returned.
Just as we went into camp at noon, two horsemen loomed up in sight coming down the trail from above.
We dropped back a mile off the trail and camped for the night.
As they gradually rose to higher altitudes the trail of the robbers was more compact and easy to follow, except for the roughness of the mountain slope.
The trail of the robbers kept in the foot-hills, finally doubling back an almost due east course.
One of our men had been taken sick, as we crossed Red River into the Nations, and not wanting to cross this Indian country short-handed, Inks had picked up a young fellow who evidently had never been over the trail before.
He was fruitful with inquiries as to where this trail or that road led.
The robbers' trail was followed but a few miles, when their course was well established.
Our plans were completely upset the next morning, by the arrival of twenty United States cavalrymen on the cold trail of four deserters.
Frequently the trail was but a single narrow path.
Several hours were lost here by the pursuing party, as they were compelled to await the arrival of a number of pack horses; so when the trail was taken up in earnest they were at least twelve hours behind the robbers.
The possibility, though the trail may look hours old, that any turn of the trail may disclose the fugitives, keeps at the highest tension every nerve of the pursuer.
It was now noticed that the herd had left the trailin the direction of a place where there had formerly been a ranch house, the corrals of which were in good repair, as they were frequently used for branding purposes.
As it was possible to overtake him we hurried forward; thetrail winds through old windfalls up and down the elevations in our path.
From some little distance to a point where the last pasture for the horses can be had the trail is moderately good.
The trail we follow passes up the hillside for some little distance and then descends to a lower level, and for this locality is comparatively good.
If there is no trail the supplies must be packed through Eagle Pass.
Breakfast and exercise make us once more ourselves, and we again start, winding along the rough and rocky edge of a rapidly descending stream on a narrow trail traced out by the surveying parties a few days previously.
The water of the streams which we were following was more heard than seen, for the trail exacted all our attention.
We follow the rough and recently cut trail by the Beaver River itself, a large stream, passing through an open canyon for four or five miles.
No trail reported from that point on Columbia River to Shuswap Lake.
In an expedition such as we are on, horses and men become identified, for they have the common object of moving onwards on the trail before them.
We knew there was no trail through the Eagle Pass; indeed I myself had telegraphed that fact from Calgary.
We clamber to the higher ground, hoping to find an easier advance, and we come upon the trail of a cariboo, but it leads to the mountains.
A party had been detailed to cut out a trail westward, which we are now to follow as far as it is made passable.
To have been attacked by the whole colony on so narrow a path might have caused serious disaster, so we abandoned the trail and traced a new route for ourselves to avoid that which we were following, and thus escaped the dilemma.
Our course lay directly through the unbroken forest, withouttrail or blazed line, and the right direction was kept only by the constant use of the compass.
I noticed, one morning, that it had been visited during the night by a pack of wolves that had fed upon it and had gone away, using the trail for a short distance and then leaving it, their tracks disappearing into the unbroken forest.
While thus busy, an Indian hunter clad in a buckskin suit came down the trail by the river bank, bringing with him a saddle of venison.
The chief said that he was averse neither to the white man using the trail of his people nor to his using the waters of the rivers or lakes within the boundaries of the reservation, but, if he did so, he must pay tribute.
Coming to a trail that led off into a small settlement, we saw the tracks of one of the two men following that trail.
The cord was then carried across the trail which was in the snow, for a distance of one hundred feet or less.
The snow was deep, and no trail was broken on the morning that I arrived at Superior hoping to secure some kind of conveyance to take me through to Bayfield, but I found no one who would volunteer to make the journey.
In going to my work, mornings, I passed along a trail near to which, in the deep snow, was the carcass of a horse which had belonged to the owner of a near-by lumber camp.
The barrel of the gun was sighted at such an elevation as to send the bullet, when fired, across the deer trail at a height from the trail sufficient to penetrate the body of the deer.
Further examination showed that the cord was stretched across a deer trail which we would have reached in a minute more.
Our original number of six men was here augmented by three half-breed Indians of the Bad River Indian Reservation, who were hired as packers and guides over a trail to be followed to the Flambeau Indian Reservation.
Crossing occasionally, the trail of the first named, served only to remind us of our complete isolation from the outside, busy world.
Slowly and noiselessly he advanced until he had drawn near to a clump of huge firs, set in a natural circle and distant about a hundred yards from the trail which led to the links.
We'll meet princesses and potentates and you may take my word for it that it won't be long before we're on the trail of some real money.
The youngsters came struggling after them, mounted on an assortment of shaggy, scrubby looking animals that knew the mountain path as a rabbit knows his trail in the jungle.
The suicide of his associates, the higher price of bread, and the long trail of blood behind the panic were forgotten by the rabble which began to regard him with the awe due a demi-god.
At sundown he rested a little, but the trail was so fresh he determined to ride on.
He saw them, one by one, leave their cotton at the ginhouse, andtrail despondingly off to their cabins.
