On the other side of the creek, Hawk watched Tater’s retreat, and when he was sure it was safe, he ran across the stream, leading Rascal, in an attempt to follow him out of the canyon. It was not difficult to follow his trail through the thick growth of trees, because the path of broken branches was obvious enough, especially in Tater’s haste to flee. It became more difficult, however, when he came to the edge of the band of trees that wrapped around the mountain and came to a wide meadow. He stopped to look for hoofprints that would tell him in which direction Tater had ridden after leaving the trees. The tracks from two horses led toward another band of trees farther around the mountain. He followed the tracks into the trees until reaching a flat rock ledge that led up to another stream coming down the mountain, and that was where he lost him. There were no tracks on the other side. Did he go upstream or downstream? That was what he had to determine. Maybe, he thought, he may have remained in the water for a long way before coming out again in an effort to lose anyone tailing him. With no option other than to ride up and down the stream, looking for tracks that would tell him where Tater had left the water, Hawk began searching. Unfortunately, the fleeing man had succeeded in disguising his trail, and eventually Hawk had to admit that he had lost him. He turned Rascal back the way they had come, thinking to check on the man Tater had left behind.

As he rode back toward the band of trees on the other side of the meadow, he remembered that the wounded man had cried out that it was half an hour back to the cabin. If that was true, it at least gave him a general area in which to look for this cabin. He was almost certain now that he had, in fact, caught up with two of the five murderers of the group of Friends. Maybe, he hoped, he could get some additional information out of the wounded man back in the stream.