As I emerged from the farther side of the village I saw, standing on the centre of the road, a solitary figure.  Approaching nearer to him, I found that he occupied a narrow wooden bridge which opened out upon the prairie.  To pause or hesitate would only be to excite suspicion in the mind of this man, sentinel or guard, as he might be.  So, at a sharp pace, I advanced towards him.  He never moved; and without word or sign I passed him at arm’s length.  But here the dog, which I had unfastened when parting from my companion, strayed away, and, being loth to lose him, I stopped at the farther end of the bridge to call him back.  This was evidently the bridge of which my companion had spoken, as the place where I was to await the horse he would send me.

The trysting-place seemed to be but ill-chosen-close to the village, and already in possession of a sentinel, it would not do.  “If the horse comes,” thought I, “he will be too late; if he does not come, there can be no use in waiting,” so, giving a last whistle for the dog (which I never saw again), I turned and held my way into the dark level plain lying mistily spread around me.  For more than an hour I walked hard along a black-clay track bordered on both sides by prairie.  I saw no one, and heard nothing save the barking of some stray dogs away to my right.

During this time the moon, now at its last quarter, rose above trees to the east, and enabled me better to discern the general features of the country through which I was passing.  Another hour passed, and still I held on my way.  I had said to myself that for three hours I must keep up the same rapid stride without pause or halt.  In the meantime I was calculating for emergencies.  If followed on horseback, I must become aware of the fact while yet my enemies were some distance away.  The black capote flung on the road would have arrested their attention, the enclosed fields on the right of the track would afford me concealment, a few shots from the fourteen shooter fired in the direction of the party, already partly dismounted deliberating over the mysterious capote, would have occasioned a violent demoralization, probably causing a rapid retreat upon Fort Garry, darkness would have multiplied numbers, and a fourteen-shooter by day or night is a weapon of very equalizing tendencies.

When the three hours had elapsed I looked anxiously around for water, as I was thirsty in the extreme.  A creek soon gave me the drink I thirsted for, and, once more refreshed, I kept on my lonely way beneath the waning moon.  At the time when I was searching for water along the bottom of the Middle Creek my pursuers were close at hand—­probably not five minutes distant—­but in those things it is the minutes which make all the difference one way or the other.

We must now go back and join the pursuit, just to see what the followers of M. Riel were about.

Sometime during the afternoon preceding the arrival of the steamer at Fort Garry, news had come down by mounted express from Pembina, that a stranger was about to make his entrance into Red River.