74 LIFETNTHEFARWEST. 



buffalo robes, of awaking again in this life, knowing as they did, 

 full well, that savage men lurked near, thirsting ibr their blood. 



However, no enemies showed themselves as yet, and they pro- 

 ceeded quietly up the river, vast herds of buffaloes darkening the 

 plains around them, affording them more than abundance of the 

 choicest meat ; but, to their credit be it spoken, no more was 

 killed than was absolutely required — unlike the cruel slaughter 

 made by most of the white travelers across the plains, who wan- 

 tonly destroy these noble animals, not even for the excitement of 

 sport, but in cold-blooded and insane butchery. La Bonte had 

 practiced enough to perfect him in the art, and, before the buffalo 

 range was passed, he was ranked as a first-rate hunter. One 

 evening he had left the camp for meat, and was approaching a 

 band of cows for that purpose, crawling toward them along the 

 bed of a dry hollow in the prairie, when he observed them sud- 

 denly jump toward him, and immediately afterward a score of 

 mounted Indians appeared, whom, by their dress, he at once knew 

 to be Pawnees and enemies. Thinking they might not discover 

 him, he crouched down in the ravine ; but a noise behind caused 

 him to turn his head, and he saw some five or six advancing up 

 the bed of the dry creek, while several more were riding on the 

 bluffs. The cunning savages had cut of his retreat to his mule, 

 which he saw in the possession of one of them. His presence of mind, 

 however, did not desert him ; and seeing at once that to remain 

 where he was would be like being caught in a trap (as the Indians 

 could advance to the edge of the blufi and shoot him from above), 

 he made for the open prairie, determined at least to sell his scalp 

 dearly, and make "a good fight." With a yell the Indians 

 charged, but halted when they saw the sturdy trapper deliberately 

 kneel, and, resting his rifle on the wiping-stick, take a steady aim 

 as they advanced. Full well the Pawnees know to their cost, 

 that a mountaineer seldom pulls his trigger without sending a 

 bullet to the mark ; and, certain that one at least must fall, they 



