midday
When Deerfoot was hardly a mile from the Nez Perce village he followed the footprints to the top of a ridge , where he paused and scanned the broad , mountainous country spread out before him . He knew the Nez Perces must have reached this point shortly after sunrise . He noted the general direction of the trail as it descended the slope in front , and accepted that as the course which the horsemen intended to follow . Then he fixed upon the point where they would be likely to make their midday halt . It was a clump of trees and undergrowth on the shores of a small lake , whose waters gleamed in the sun . Paying no further attention to the trail itself , Deerfoot set out at a swift lope for the body of water . The small lake which was the destination of Deerfoot seemed to be only two or three miles distant , but he knew it was all of twenty miles away .