WILD FIRE The afternoon wore on, much occupied with duties connected with the sad scenes of the: tragedy.

No word came of Woodhull, or of two others who could not be identified as among the victims at the death camp.

No word, either, came from the Missourians, and so cowed or dulled were most of the men of the caravan that they did not venture far, even to undertake trailing out after the survivors of the massacre.

In sheer indecision the great aggregation of wagons, piled up along the stream, lay apathetic, and no order came for the advance.
Jed and his cow guards were obliged to drive the cattle back into the ridges for better grazing, for the valley and adjacent country, which had not been burned over by the Indians the preceding fall, held a lower matting of heavy dry grass through which the green grass of springtime appeared only in sparser and more smothered growth.

As many of the cattle and horses even now showed evil results from injudicious driving on the trail, it was at length decided to make a full day's stop so that they might feed up.
Molly Wingate, now assured that the Pawnees no longer were in the vicinity, ventured out for pasturage with her team of mules, which she had kept tethered close to her own wagon.