After riding some five miles or so, I dismounted and tied my horse
to a sagebrush, and climbed to the top of the highest hill between
me and where I supposed them to be. I discovered them about a mile
away, and they were just leaving the trail, riding up a ravine
that led to the north. They dismounted and put their ponies out to
grass. There also appeared to be a little meadow where they
stopped, and I concluded there must be water there, too. I took in
the situation at a glance and could see that I would have to ride
a long distance to get near them. Just immediately beyond them was
a little hill that sloped off down to the meadow on which they
were camped, but in any other direction a person could not ride
without being discovered.
I went back to my horse, mounted and took a circuit of about ten
miles, having to travel that distance in order to keep out of
their sight. Coming in from the north, I rode almost to the top of
the hill; here I dismounted, tied my horse, crawled to the top of
the hill, and on looking down could see them almost under me, the
hill was so small and steep. They were busily engaged in skinning
a jack-rabbit, and about that time I felt as though I could eat a
hind quarter of it myself if it had been cooked; for I had been
too busily engaged that day to stop and eat a lunch.
Here I lay in the sagebrush trying to devise some plan by which I
could do away with them and capture their horses.
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