Where the hunter has no friend to mount guard, he is often compelled to depend upon his horses, who frequently prove the best kind of sentinels.

They are quick to detect the approach of strangers, and a slight neigh or stamp of the foot is enough to give the saving warning.
A large portion of the country over which he rode, was a treeless plain and the keen blue eyes of the matchless mountaineer were kept on a continual strain.

A moving speck in the distant horizon, the faint column of thin smoke rising from the far off grove, or a faint yellow dust against the blue sky, could only mean one thing--the presence of enemies, for he was in a region which contained not a single friend.
One afternoon Carson discovered an Indian village directly ahead of him and on the trail which he was following.

He instantly withdrew beyond sight of any who might be on guard, and, hunting a sparse grove of timber, kept within it until dark; then he made a long circuit, and came back to the trail far beyond it.

He travelled a long distance that night and by daylight was in no danger of detection.
By using such extreme caution and watchfulness, he succeeded in passing the entire distance without exchanging a hostile shot with anyone.