Page:The Cross Pull.pdf/242

 ridge. Flash found no taint of man scent and neither man found any likely traces. Before they had covered half of it Moran was positive they would not find it here. Flash’s keen senses would have detected some sign of any large number of men. Nevertheless, to make absolutely sure they pushed on, peering down into every rimrocked pocket which fell away from either side. Night found them far back where this short divide joined the mass of the parent range.

The Yellowstone breaks into a dozen smaller streams at its very head and these flare up into the hills, draining the fan-shaped basin in which the river heads. The following two days they worked around this rugged basin but still without success. They discovered many old signs of man; a scrap or two of paper; the ashes of two small fires and a dozen dim heel prints made early in the spring when the earth was soft and spongy from melting drifts. Both knew that these had been left by the men they sought. No others came to this high country so early in the spring. These men could wander all over the hills for nine months in the year. Only when the passes were clear and infrequent pack parties came in were they forced to withdraw to their main re-