178 LIFE IN THE FAR WEST 



Fourteen good rifles in the hands of fourteen moun- 

 tain-men stout and true, on fourteen strong horses, of 

 true Indian blood and training fourteen cool heads, 

 with fourteen pairs of keen eyes in them, each head 

 crafty as an Indian's, directing a right arm strong as 

 steel, and a heart as brave as grizzly bear's. Before 

 them a thousand miles of dreary desert or wilderness, 

 overrun by hostile savages, thirsting for the white man's 

 blood ; famine and drought, the arrows of wily hordes 

 of Indians and, these dangers past, the invasion of 

 the civilised settlements of whites, the least numerous 

 of which contained ten times their number of armed 

 and bitter enemies, the sudden swoop upon their 

 countless herds of mules and horses, the fierce attack 

 and bloody slaughter ; such were the consequences 

 of the expedition these bold mountaineers were now 

 engaged in. Fourteen lives of any fourteen enemies 

 who would be rash enough to stay them, were, any 

 day you will, carried in the rifle-barrels of these stout 

 fellows ; who, in all the proud consciousness of their 

 physical qualities, neither thought, nor cared to think, 

 of future perils ; and rode merrily on their way, rejoi- 

 cing in the dangers they must necessarily meet. Never 

 a more daring band crossed the mountains ; a more 

 than ordinary want of caution characterised their 

 march, and dangers were recklessly and needlessly 

 invited, which even the older and more cold-blooded 

 mountaineers seemed not to care to avoid. They had, 

 each and all, many a debt to pay the marauding Indians. 

 Grudges for many privations, for wounds and loss of 



