IN THE OLD WEST 223 



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 



