274 GUN, KOD, AND SADDLE. 



est disaster a man can suffer in sucli a situation is the 

 loss either of his ammunition or of his horses. If 

 there were any hostile redskins in the neighborhood, 

 by the step I had taken a stampede of my animals 

 •was now impossible, A few of the longest hours I 

 thus sat, my presence reassuring the beasts, and, 

 when day broke, so still had all become, that I doubt 

 not I should have been asleep, only that the hour 

 preceding day is well known to be invariably the 

 time selected by Indians to carry out their machina- 

 tions. In the morning, quietly moving about camp, 

 as if pursuing unsuspiciously my usual av^ocations, I 

 particularly examined the locality, when, among the 

 remaining scattered patches of snow, the easily-dis- 

 tinguished bruised moccasin track of an Indian was 

 discovered, doubtless made by a brave, who in 

 search for game had got benighted, when he had stum- 

 bled across my hiding-place. My camp was there- 

 fore no longer safe ; the coming night, he, with his 

 companions, would be back, when woe betide the 

 solitary white man. My horses I accompanied to 

 their feeding-ground, not })ermitting tliem to get be- 

 yond control, and as soon as their ajjpetites were 

 sufficiently satisiied, I returned to my little liome 

 for tlic last time. The few trifles I possessed were 



