Pink tried loping, but the ground was too treacherous and his horse too
leg-weary to handle its feet properly in the dark. It stumbled several times,
so he pulled down again to a fast walk. For a few minutes he did not hear the
bell at all, and when be did it was not where he had expected to hear it, but
away off to one side. So he had gained nothing save in anger and uneasiness.
There was no use going back to camp and rousing the boys, for he was now a
mile or so away; and they would be afoot, since their custom was to keep but
one horse saddled. When he went in to call the next guard he would be expected
to bring that man's horse back with him, and would turn his own loose before
he went to sleep. Certainly there was nothing to be gained by rousing the
camp.
He did not suspect the trick being played upon him, though he did wonder if
someone was leading the horses away. Still, in that case whoever did it would
surely have sense enough to muffle the bell. Besides, it sounded exactly like
a horse feeding and moving away at random--which, to those familiar with the
sound, can never be mistaken for the tinkle of an animal traveling steadily to
some definite point.
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