ld return, promising them ample rewards
for their fidelity. It may seem a desperate chance to trust to the faith
and honesty of two such vagabonds; but, as the horses would have, at all
events, to be abandoned, and would otherwise become the property of the
first vagrant horde that should encounter them, it was one chance in
favor of their being regained.

At this place another detachment of hunters prepared to separate from
the party for the purpose of trapping beaver. Three of these had
already been in this neighborhood, being the veteran Robinson and his
companions, Hoback and Rezner, who had accompanied Mr. Henry across the
mountains, and who had been picked up by Mr. Hunt on the Missouri, on
their way home to Kentucky. According to agreement they were fitted
out with horses, traps, ammunition, and everything requisite for their
undertaking, and were to bring in all the peltries they should collect,
either to this trading post, or to the establishment at the mouth of
Columbia River. Another hunter, of the name of Cass, was associated with
them in their enterprise. It is in this way that small knots of trappers
and hunters are distributed about the wilderness by the fur companies,
and like cranes and bitterns, haunt its solitary streams. Robinson, the
Kentuckian, the veteran of the "bloody ground," who, as has already
been noted, had been scalped by the Indians in his younger days, was the
leader of this little band. When they were about to depart, Mr. Miller
called the partners together and threw up his share in the company,
declaring his intention of joining the party of trappers.

This resolution struck every one with astonishment, Mr. Miller being
a man of education and of cultivated habits, and little fitted for
the rude life of a hunter. Besides, the precarious and slender profits
arising from such a life were beneath the prospects of one who held a
share in the general enterprise. Mr. Hunt was especially concerned
and mortified at his determination, as it was through his advice and
influence he had entered into the concern. He endeavored, therefore, to
dissuade him from this sudden resolution; representing its rashness,
and the hardships and perils to which it would expose him. He earnestly
advised him, however he might feel dissatisfied with the enterprise,
still to continue on in company until they should reach the mouth of
Columbia River. There they would meet the expedition that was to come by
sea; when,