He Declared He Would Actually Have Given His Whole Arrears Of Pay, Amounting To Upwards Of A Year's Wages, Rather Than Be Balked Of Such A Capital Shot.

Mr. Stuart, however, represented what might have been the consequence of so rash an act.

Life for life is the Indian maxim. The whole tribe would have made common cause in avenging the death of a warrior. The party were but seven dismounted men, with a wide mountain region to traverse, infested by these people, and which might all be roused by signal fires. In fact, the conduct of the band of marauders in question, showed the perseverance of savages when once they have fixed their minds upon a project. These fellows had evidently been silent and secretly dogging the party for a week past, and a distance of a hundred and fifty miles, keeping out of sight by day, lurking about the encampment at night, watching all their movements, and waiting for a favorable moment when they should be off their guard. The menace of Mr. Stuart, in their first interview, to shoot the giant chief with his pistol, and the fright caused among the warriors by presenting the rifles, had probably added the stimulus of pique to their usual horse- stealing propensities. And in this mood of mind they would doubtless have followed the party throughout their whole course over the Rocky Mountains, rather than be disappointed in their scheme.

CHAPTER XLVI. Travellers Unhorsed- Pedestrian Preparations- Prying Spies.- Bonfires of Baggage- A March on Foot.- Rafting a River - The Wounded Elk.- Indian Trails.- Willful Conduct of Mr. M'Lellan.- Grand Prospect From a Mountain.- Distant Craters of Volcanoes- Illness of Mr. Crooks.

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