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Show 208 THE CALIFORNIA AND OREGON TRAIL. pointed to the fugitives, and ordered him to pursue them. Mut. tering a 'Sacre !' between his teeth, he set out at full speed, still swinging his rifle in his hand. I walked up to the top of a hill, and looking away over the prairie, could just distinguish the runaways, still at full gallop. Returning to the fire, I sat down at the foot of a tree. Wearily and anxiously hour after hour passed away. The old loose bark dangling from the trunk behind me flapped to and fro in the wind, and the mos. quitoes kept up their incessant drowsy humming; but other than this, there was no sight nor sound of life throughout the burning landscape. The sun rose higher and higher, until the shadows tell almost perpendicularly, and I knew that it must be noon. It seemed scarcely possible that the animals could be recovered. If they were not, my situation was one of serious difficulty. Shaw, when I left him, had decided to move that morning, but whither he had not determined. To look for him would be a vain attempt. Fort Laramie was forty miles distant, and I could not walk a mile without great effort. Not then having learned the sound philosophy of yielding to dispro. portionate obstacles, I resolved to continue in any event the pur. suit of the Indians. Only one plan occurred to me ; this was, to send Raymond to the fort with an order for more horses, while I remained on the spo t , awai· tm· g hI' s return, w hw' h m1·g ht take place within th d B . . ree ays. ut the adoptwn of this resolu-tion ~id not wholly allay my anxiety, for it involved both un-certainty and dangei· T . . r. · o remain statiOnary and alone 101' three days in a cou t . 1'. ll f . ' n Iy 1U o dangerous Indians, was not the most Battering of p . rospects ; and protracted as my Indian hunt must be by such dela 't . . y, I Was not easy to foretell Its ultimate result. Revolvin th g ese matters, I grew hungry; and as our HUNTING INDIANS. 209 stock of provisions, except four or five pounds of flour, was by this time exhausted, I left the camp to see what game I could find. Nothing could be seen except four or five large curlew, which, with their loud screaming, were wheeling over my head, and now and then alighting upon the prairie. I shot two of them, and was about returning, when a startling sight caught my eye. A small, dark object, like a human head, suddenly appeared, and vanished among the thick bushes along the stream below. In that country every stranger is a suspected ~nemy. Instinctively I threw forward the muzzle of 1ny rifle. In a moment the bushes were violently shaken, two heads, but not human heads, protruded, and to my great joy I 1·ecognized the downcast, disconsolate countenance of the black mule and the yellow visage of Pauline. Raymond came upon the mule, pale and haggard, complaining of a fiery pain in his chest. I took· charge of the animals while he kneeled down by the side of the stream to drink. ~e had kept the runaways in sight as far as the Side Fork of Laramie Creek, a distance of more than ten miles; and here with great difficulty he had succeeded in catching them. I saw that he was unarmed, and asked him what he had done with his rifle. It had encumbered him in his pursuit, and he had dropped it on the prairie, thinking that he could find it on his return; but in this he had failed. The loss might prove a very formidable one. I was too much rejoiced however at the recovery of the animals to think much about it; and having made some tea for Raymond in a tin vessel which we had brought with us, I told him that I would give him two hours for resting before we set out again. He had ~aten nothing that day ; but having no appetite, he lay down Immediately to sleep. I picketed the animals among the rich- |
