IN THE OLD WEST 



his way to a rendezvous on Bear River, whence he 

 struck out for the Platte in early spring, in time 

 to join the band he now accompanied, who were 

 on a horse-stealing expedition to the Missions of 

 Upper California. Little persuasion did either 

 Killbuck or La Bonte require to join the sturdy 

 freebooters. In five minutes they had gone " files- 

 about," and at sundown were camping on the well- 

 timbered bottom of Little Sandy, feasting once 

 more on delicate hump-rib and tenderloin. 



For California, ho ! 



Fourteen good rifles in the hands of fourteen 

 mountainmen stout and true, on fourteen strong 

 horses, of true Indian blood and training four- 

 teen 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 civilized settlements of whites, the least 

 numerous of which contained ten times their num- 

 ber 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. Four- 

 teen lives of any fourteen enemies who would be 



