That was all; Keith scouted over a wide circle, even scanning the stretch of gravel under the river bank, before he could fully satisfy himself there were no others in the party.

It seemed impossible that these two travelling alone would have ventured upon such a trip in the face of known Indian hostility.

Yet they must have done so, and once again his lips muttered: "Of all the blame fools!" Suddenly he halted, staring about over the prairie, obsessed by a new thought, an aroused suspicion.

There had appeared merely the hoof-prints of the one horse alongside of the fleeing wagons when they first turned out from the trail, and that horse had been newly shod.

But there were two dead ponies lying back yonder; neither shod, yet both had borne saddles.