noon
About noon of the third day , the weather continuing wet with cold nights , and with no abatement of the general gloom , our men on point noticed smoke arising directly ahead on our course , in a little valley through which ran a nice stream of water . When Flood 's attention was directed to the smoke , he rode forward to ascertain the cause , and returned worse baffled than I ever saw him . It was an Indian camp , and had evidently been abandoned only that morning , for the fires were still smouldering . Ordering the wagon to camp on the creek and the cattle to graze forward till noon , Flood returned to the Indian camp , taking two of the boys and myself with him . It had not been a permanent camp , yet showed evidence of having been occupied several days at least , and had contained nearly a hundred lean-tos , wickyups , and tepees -- altogether too large an encampment to suit our tastes . The foreman had us hunt up the trail leaving , and once we had found it , all four of us ran it out five or six miles , when , from the freshness of it , fearing that we might be seen , we turned back . The Indians had many ponies and possibly some cattle , though the sign of the latter was hard to distinguish from buffalo .