Page:Don Coronado through Kansas.djvu/374

Rh observation he knows these animals and birds are more keen of sight or sense of hearing than are human beings. But now every ear is strainied to listen to the approach of the enemy and he is sure of their direction by the course the animals are taking; his body is carefully concealed behind the large cotton-woods, elms and sycamores which grew along the river, arid now in the far distance he catches a glimpse of the party, and with the agility of an Indian, he hides himself in a fork in the dense foliage, watching the party, but after careful counting he finds there are only five, and the question then is, what has become of the other? But it does riot take him long to figure out the probability of the one being left to watch the movements of the canoe in case it should emerge from the creek, so his heart throbs with excitement, for here perhaps is the opportunity sought. As soon as the party is far enough away he descends and has no difficulty in following the trail left by a passing enemy, but he now realizes the danger, therefore he resorts to every conceivable art to guard against giving the one man warning of his approach. All is still and the young fellow begins to doubt his senses of seeing six along the bank; but he does not become discouraged or less on the alert, but concludes to climb a tree and await developments; soon he hears the bark of a wolf, or what resembles the same, but to the trained ear of the prairie it lacked an inexplicable something, which set him, on the qui vive, and soon he was certain of his suspicion for it was answered by the hoot of an owl; and now he resorted to real prairie tactics, for he