124 THRILLING ADVENTURES. 



sun, the trapper turned gently on his side and breathed his 

 last sigh. 



With no other tools than their scalping-knives, the hunters 

 dug a grave on the banks of the creek ; and while some were 

 engaged in this work, others sought the bodies of the Indians 

 they had slain in the attack, and presently returned with three 

 reeking scalps, the trophies of the fight. The body of the 

 mountaineer was wrapped in a buffalo robe, the scalps being 

 placed on his breast, and the dead man was then laid in the 

 shallow grave, and quickly covered without a word of prayer, 

 or sigh of grief; for, however much his companions may have 

 felt, not a word escaped them. The bitten lip and frowning 

 brow told of anger rather than sorrow, as they vowed what 

 they thought would better please the spirit of the dead man 

 than vain regrets bloody and lasting revenge. 



Trampling down the earth which filled the grave, they 

 raised upon it a pile of heavy stones ; and packing their mules 

 once more and taking a last look at their comrade's lonely 

 resting-place, they turned their backs upon the stream, which 

 has ever since been known as " Gonneville's Creek." 



In all the philosophy of hardened hearts, our hunters turned 

 from the spot where the unfortunate trapper met his death. 

 La Bonte, however, not yet entirely steeled by mountain life 

 to a perfect indifference to human feeling, drew his hard hand 

 across his eye, as the unbidden tear rose from his rough but 

 kindly heart. He could not forget so soon the comrade he 

 had lost, the companion in the hunt or over the cheerful camp- 

 fire, the narrator of many a tale of dangers past, of sufferings 

 from hunger, cold, thirst, and untended wounds, of Indian 

 perils, and other vicissitudes. One tear dropped from the 

 young hunter's eye, and rolled down his cheek the last for 

 many a long year. 



In the forks of the northern branch of the Platte, formed 

 by the junction of the Laramie, they found a big village of 

 the Sioux encamped near the station of one of the fur com- 



