'In another quarter of an hour they'll know all about it, Rube. It
will take them as much more to get ready and put the dog on the
track. They'll have some trouble in getting him to take up our
scent with all that blood in the room. I should say we may fairly
reckon on three-quarters of an hour before, they're well out of the
camp.'
'That's about it,' Rube said. 'They will have to tie the dog, so as
not to lose him in the darkness. They won't gain on us very fast
for the next two hours; we can keep this up for that at a pinch.
After that, if we don't strike water, we are done for.'
'We passed a stream yesterday, Rube; how far was it back?'
'About an hour after daylight. Yes, nearly three hours from camp.
But we are going faster now than we did then. We ought to do it in
two hours.'
"After this we didn't say any more. We wanted all our breath. It
was well for us we had both been tramping half our lives, and that
our legs had saved our necks more times than once on the prairies.
We were both pretty confident we could run sixteen miles in two
hours. But we dared not run straight. We knew that if they found we
were keeping a line, they would let the dog go their best pace and
gallop alongside; so we had to zigzag, sometimes going almost back
upon our own track.
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