Page:The Cross Pull.pdf/50

 That night as Moran slept, the breezes bore faint vibrations of sound and whiffs of scent that spoke of man to Flash.

He grew restless and uneasy and explored various long ridges, trying to find the source of these. Near morning a sound floated up to him as he trotted along a crest and he moved to the edge and looked down. The rimrocks fell sheer away from his feet. From below the scent came strong. He could catch no individual odor, only the combined scent of a number of men and someway, while there was not a single trace of the one scent he hated worst of all, the whole air of the place was suggestive of Brent and he flattened his ears at the thought. These men must be camped in the gulch below.

He trotted back to Moran and looked him over carefully to see that all was right, then found a break and dropped down to the floor of the canyon that ran along the base of that particular ridge. It was a jungle of heavy spruce but he found no trace of the camp he sought.

He stopped often and nosed the wind but it brought no scent. Dawn was beginning to gray off toward the Sunlight Gap when he finally caught a sound, but the sound came from above.