Nonetheless, he got a view of the countryside around, and he took in drainages, thick woods, trails and roads, including the one they rode in on. Strongheart planned his escape routes in his mind, thinking of each possible attack. He saw movement down below and got his telescope out of his saddlebags. There was a posse following him and there was a tracker in the lead. “Shawnee,” Strongheart said to himself. “Let’s see how good you can track.” Strongheart took off down the other side of the ridge, then doubled back, reached the top of the ridge, and doubled back again down the gentle ridgeline, making three sets of tracks going both up and down the ridge. He went into a stream running along the bottom of the gulch to the east and slowly walked through the stream until he came to a rocky bank, left the stream, and carefully rode up the opposite ridge a short distance. There, he dismounted, left Eagle grazing on the wild grasses, and he went back to the stream, and covered up all signs of him leaving the waterway.
