LIFE IN THE FAR WEST. 205 



ery as they had meditated had met with a merited 

 retribution. 



The next day the party continued their course to the 

 Platte. Antoine and the stranger returned to the Ar- 

 kansa, starting in the night to avoid the Indians ; but 

 Killbuck and La Bonte lent the aid of their rifles to the 

 solitary caravan, and, under their experienced guidance, 

 no more Indian perils were encountered. Mary no longer 

 sat perched up in her father's Conostoga, but rode a quiet 

 mustang by La Bonte"'s side ; and no doubt they found a 

 theme with which to while away the monotonous journey 

 over the dreary plains. South Fork was passed, and Lar- 

 amie was reached. The Sweet Water Mountains, which 

 hang over the " pass " to California, were long since in 

 sight ; but when the waters of the North Fork of Platte 

 lay before their horses' feet, and the broad trail was pointed 

 out which led to the great valley of Columbia and their 

 promised land, the heads of the oxen were turned down the 

 stream, where the shallow waters flow on to join the great 

 Missouri and not up, towards the mountains, where they 

 leave their spring-heads, from which springs flow several 

 waters, some coursing their way to the eastward, fertilis- 

 ing, in their route to the Atlantic, the lands of civilised 

 man others westward, forcing a passage through rocky 

 canons, and flowing through a barren wilderness, inhabited 

 by fierce and barbarous tribes. 



These were the routes to choose between ; and, whatever 

 was the cause, the oxen turned their yoked heads away 

 from the rugged mountains ; the teamsters joyfully cracked 

 their ponderous whips, as the waggons rolled lightly down 

 the Platte; and men, women, and children waved their 

 hats and bonnets in the air and cried out lustily, " Hurrah 

 for home ! " 



La Bonte looked at the dark sombre mountains ere he 

 turned his back upon them for the last time. He thought 

 of the many years he had spent beneath their rugged 

 shadow, of the many hardships he had suffered, of all his 

 pains and perils in those wild regions. The most ex- 

 citing episodes of his adventurous career, his tried com- 



