A Double Barrelled Detective Story

From A Double Barrelled Detective Story:

He strode off swiftly southward, the files following, swaying and bending
in and out with the deep curves of the gorge. Thus a mile, and the mouth
of the gorge was reached; before them stretched the sagebrush plain, dim,
vast, and vague. Stillman called a halt, saying, “We mustn’t start
wrong, now; we must take the direction again.”