When they reached the road, the little man turned to the west. Moving rapidly, even though unable to stand up straight, Frog limped along the side of the road until he came to a deep gully. He stopped and pointed to hoofprints, some leading down into a gully, others coming up from it. Hawk hopped down into the gully, interested more in the fresher tracks leaving the road. Looking as closely as he could in the fading light of day, he was able to make out the smaller tracks of a mule, mixed in with those of the horses. That would be the mule carrying all the Quakers’ money, he thought. He paused to look around him at the growing darkness, knowing it would be better to follow the tracks in daylight. At least, it gave him a start. He looked back at the road, where Frog stood watching him. When he caught his eye, the little man grinned and began nodding rapidly again. “Choteau,” he said, and repeated, “Choteau.” Then he asked, “Good?”

“Good,” Hawk answered, not really understanding what he meant by Choteau. “Let’s go get something to eat now,” he said. Together, they walked back down the road to the campsite, where a couple of healthy fires were already burning. He went to his packhorse and got some deer jerky and hardtack, which he gave to Frog and motioned for him to eat.

“Looks like you made a friend,” Conner commented when Hawk walked up to the fire. “How’d you get him outta his hole?”

Hawk responded with a question of his own. “What are you plannin’ to do in the mornin’?”

“We’ll take all these folks back to Fort Benton,” Conner said, surprised that he had asked. “What did you think?”

“Well, I’ve got a trail I can follow outta here. It ain’t as fresh as I’d like it, but it’s pretty plain to see. It’s the same one Booth’s partners rode in on, so there’s a good chance it might lead us to ’em.” He imagined he could see the wheels turning in Conner’s brain, but knew his friend was obligated to see that Lewis and his friends were escorted safely back to Fort Benton. “What I want to know is, are you goin’ after those murderin’ bastards, once you take the preacher’s wagon back?”

“Well, sure, I’m gonna see if we can catch up with them, although I know we’ll most likely be too far behind to have much chance of doing it,” Conner said. “How many days ago did this thing happen? I’m not really sure.”