about midnight
If we bite at that bait , we shall lose everything , for as soon as the decoys have led us as far out of our way as they care to have us go , they will disappear all of a sudden , and we shall never see them again . If we keep on after the main body , and travel fast enough to gain on them , they will drop the stock in the desert , break up into squads of twos and threes , and we shall have nothing to do but to turn about and go home again . '' The Indians did manoeuvre pretty nearly as George said they would , but Captain Clinton and his scouting-party did not go back to the fort until they had accomplished something . The troopers went into camp about midnight , having been nineteen hours in the saddle , during which time they had marched more than seventy miles . They halted on the bank of a small stream near a ford over which the Indians had passed during their retreat . The trail was plain , and some of the troopers , who did not know quite as much about trailing as they thought they did , declared that they were close upon the heels of the raiders . `` How is that , George ? ''