And he did it subconsciously, without perceptible effort.
The surpassing skill of his tracking did not strike me forcibly at
first, for I can read an open trail as well as the average cowman, and
the mark of their passing lay plain before us; the veriest pilgrim, new
come from graded roads and fenced pastures, could have counted the
number of their steps--each hoof had stamped its impression in the soft
loam as clearly as a steel die-cut in soaked leather. But that was where
they had ridden while the land was still plastic from the rain. Farther,
wind and sun had dried the ridge-turf to its normal firmness and baked
the dobe flats till in places they were of their old flinty hardness.
Yet Piegan crossed at a lope places where neither MacRae nor I could
glimpse a sign--and when we would come again to soft ground the trail of
the three would rise up to confront us, and bid us marvel at the
keenness of his vision. He had a gift that we lacked.
We followed in the wake of Piegan Smith with what speed the
coulee-gashed prairie permitted, and about three o'clock halted for half
an hour to let our horses graze; we had been riding steadily over four
hours, and it behooved us to have some thought for our mounts. Within
ten minutes of starting again we dipped into a wide-bottomed coulee and
came on the place where the three had made their first night-camp--a
patch of dead ashes, a few half-burned sticks, and the close-cropped
grass-plots where each horse had circled a picket-pin.
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