he rode with his head bent low and a far-off look in his eyes.

"The sand?" he questioned, glancing up as if startled at the sound of
my voice. "Why, it has been cast there by the stormy waves of the
Great Lake, my lad, and beaten into those strange and fantastic shapes
by the action of the wind. Doubtless 'tis the work of centuries of
storms."

"Are we, then, so close to the lake?" I asked eagerly,--for I had never
yet seen so large a body of water, and his description fired my
imagination.

"'T is but just beyond those dunes yonder, and will be still nearer
when we come to camp. Possibly you might reach the shore before dark
if you exercise care,--for there is danger of becoming lost in that
sand desert. Those hills seem all alike when once you are among them."

"What is it that so greatly disturbs your Miamis?" I ventured to ask,
for I had been noticing for some time that they were restless and
travelling poorly. "They have been counselling now for two hours."

He glanced aside at me in apparent surprise.

"Why, boy, I thought you were bred to the border; and can you ask me
such a question? Do you observe nothing, like that fine gentleman
yonder? What have we been following since first we entered this
valley?"

"An old Indian trail."