bb THRILLING ADVENTURES. 



and mournful chiding would be heard as they fought for the 

 possession of the ravished morsel. 



When every thing was duly protected, the men set to 

 work to spread their beds, those who had not troubled them- 

 selves to erect a shelter getting under the lee of the piles of 

 packs and saddles ; while Killbuck, disdaining even such care 

 of his carcass, threw his buffalo robe on the bare ground, de- 

 claring his intention to " take" what was coming at all hazards, 

 and "any how." Selecting a high spot, he drew his knife 

 and proceeded to cut drains round it to prevent the water 

 running into him as he lay ; then taking a single robe he 

 carefully spread it, placing under the end farthest from the 

 fire a large stone brought from the creek. Having satisfac- 

 torily adjusted this pillow, he added another robe to the one 

 already laid, and placed over all a Navajo blanket, supposed 

 to be impervious to rain. Then he divested himself of his 

 pouch and powder-horn, which, with his rifle, he placed inside 

 his bed, and quickly covered up, lest the wet should reach 

 them. Having performed these operations to his satisfaction, 

 he lighted his pipe by the hissing embers of the half extin- 

 guished fire (for by this time the rain poured in torrents,) 

 and went the rounds of the picketed animals, cautioning the 

 guard round the camp to keep their " eyes skinned, for there 

 would be 4 powder burned' before morning." Then return- 

 ing to the fire, and kicking with his mocassoned foot the 

 slumbering ashes, he squatted down before it, and thus 

 soliloquized 



" Thirty years have I been knocking about these mountains 

 from Missoura's head as far sothe as starving Gila. I've 

 trapped a 'heap,' and many a hundred pack of beaver I've 

 traded in my time, wagh ! What has come of it, whar's the 

 dollars as ought to be in my possibles ? Whar's the ind of 

 this, I say ? Is a man to be hunted by Injuns all his days ? 

 Many's the time I've said I'd strike for Taos, and trap a 

 squaw, for this child's getting old, and feels like wanting a 



