130 GUN, KOD, AND SADDLE. 



disturbed them. One thing was very much in my 

 favor I was in the lightest of marching order, no 

 pack of peltries or well-stocked kit had I, for a 

 few pounds of bullets, a pound of powder, and my 

 buffalo robe, were all my animals had for a load. 

 How independent a fellow feels when all his worldly 

 goods can be summed up in so few words. To keep 

 as much in the nags as possible, in case speed might 

 be required, on the look-out for any thing suspicious, 

 with cautious, slow steps, I pursued my route to the 

 eastward. Nothing occurred to increase my watch- 

 fulness ; in truth, I commenced to believe that I had 

 unnecessarily alarmed myself, when, crossing a small 

 water-course, on the edge of which was a sandy 

 margin, plainly I saw the prints where three 

 horses had lately passed. The forefeet of one of 

 them was shod a good indication. Still they might 

 have lately been stolen from some distant white 

 settlement, so all my previous alarm and caution 

 were again reverted to. Half an hour afterward I 

 heard the report of a rifle ; but, as there was a roll 

 in the prairie between me and the direction the 

 sound came from, I could not see who had iired the 

 shot. In ignorance of what was to be seen beyond, 

 it would have been niadixess to have ridden to the 



