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Show 124 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF no water on their route, and had proceeded to the river, forty-five miles distant. My feelings at this disappointment transcended expression. A thousand ideas peopled my feverish brain at once. Home, friends, and my loved one presented themselves with one lightning-flash. The Indians were close at my heels; their bullets were whizzing past me; their yells sounded painfully in my ears; and I cou-ld almost feel the knife making a circuit round my skull. On I bounded, however, following the road which our whole company had made. I was scorching with thirst, having tasted neither sup nor bit since we commenced the race. Still on I went with the speed of an antelope. I kept safely in advance of the 1·ange of their bullets, when suddenly the glorious sight of the camp-smoke caught my eye. My companions perceived me at a mile from the camp, as well as my pursuers ; and, mounting their horses to meet me, soon turned the tables on my pursuers. It was_ now the Indians' turn to be chased. They must have suffered as badly with thirst as I did, and our men cut them off from the river. Night had begun to close in, under the protection of which the Indians escaped; our men returned with only five scalps. According to the closest calculation~ I ran that day ninety-five miles.* My heels thus deprived the rascally Indians of their anticipated pleasure of dancing over my scalp. My limbs were so much swollen the next morning, that for * Concerning this great race for life, it maY' appear impossible to some for a human being to accomplish such a feat. Those who survive of Sublet's company, and who know the distances from point to point of my celebrated race, will please to correct me publicly if I am in error in the distance. I have known instances of Indian runners accomplishing more than one hundred and ten miles in one day.NARRATOR. JAMES P. BECKWOURTH. 125 two or three days ensuing it was with g1:eat difficu~ty I got about. My whole system was also 1n great pa1n. In a few days, however, I was a~ well as ever, and ready to repay the Indians for thmr trouble .. The third day after my escape, my companwn_ Al~ck found his way into camp. He entered the lodge With dejection on his features. "Oh!" he exclaimed, "I thank God for my escape, but the Indians have killed poor Jim. I saw his bo?es a few miles back. I will give any thing I have 1f a party will go with me and bury hi~. The wolves have almost picked his bones, but 1t must be he. Poor, poor Jim ! gone at last ! " . . . " Ha ! " said some one present, "IS J 1m lulled, the~? Poor fellow ! Well, Aleck, let us go back and g1ve him a Christian burial." He had seen a body nearly devoured on the way, most likely that of the wounded Indian who had chased me in his retreat from our camp. I came limping into the crowd at this n10ment, and addressed him before he had perceived me: "Halloo, Aleck, are you safe?" · He looked at me for a moment in astonishment, and then em braced me so tight that I thought he :would suffocate me. He burst into a flood of tears, whiCh for a time prevented his articulation. ~e lo~ked at me again and again, as if in doubt of my Identity. At length he said, " Oh, Jim, you are safe ! And how did you escape ? I made sure that you were killed, and that the body I saw on the road was yours. Pshaw! I stopped and shed tears on a confounded dead Indian's carcass!" { Aleck stated that the enemy had passed within ten feet without perceiving him; that his gun was cocked |