204 IN THE OLD WEST 



they saw old Bill, bending over his saddle, dive 

 right into the cloud of smoke, and apparently 

 make for the creek bottom their other com- 

 panions scattering each on his own hook, and saw 

 no more of them for many a month ; and thus was 

 one of the most daring and successful bands 

 broken up that ever trapped in the mountains of 

 the Far West. 



It is painful to follow the steps of the poor fel- 

 lows who, thus despoiled of the hardly-earned 

 produce of their hunt, saw all their wealth torn 

 from them at one swoop. The two Canadians 

 were killed upon the night succeeding that of the 

 attack. Worn with fatigue, hungry and cold, 

 they had built a fire in what they thought was a 

 secure retreat, and, rolled in their blankets, were 

 soon buried in a sleep from which they never 

 awoke. An Indian boy tracked them, and 

 watched their camp. Burning with the idea of 

 signalizing himself thus early, he awaited his op- 

 portunity, and noiselessly approaching their rest- 

 ing-place, shot them both with arrows, and re- 

 turned in triumph to his people with their horses 

 and scalps. 



La Bonte and Killbuck sought a passage in the 

 mountain by which to cross over to the head- 

 waters of the Columbia, and there fall in with 

 some of the traders or trappers of the North- 

 West. They became involved in the mountains, 

 in a part where was no game of any description, 



