will appreciate our impatience and the slow passage of
time.

But daylight came at last, and swinging into our saddles, we formed in
line and slowly, cautiously advanced. As our heads rose above the slight
elevation that had obscured the camp, our revolvers in hand, we spurred
our horses into a run and began yelling like furies. Scarcely had we
done so when several Indians sprang up and rushed towards us with hands
up and calling at the top of their voices:

"Warm Springs! Warm Springs! Wascos, Wascos!"

They were calling in jargon, and recognizing them as friendly Indians,
and not Snakes and therefore enemies, both Jim Clark and Perry Maupin
called out, "For God's sake, boys, don't shoot!" We halted among them
without firing a shot. They then related to us their story. They were
camped at the place hunting when the Snakes came upon them about 1
o'clock the previous evening. A skirmish had taken place, but without
serious consequences on either side, when the Snakes made overtures for
peace, saying they did not want to fight them, that they were only
enemies of the white man. They proposed, in order to settle the terms of
peace, that the two chiefs, Polina, or as some give the name, Penina,
chief of the Snakes, and Queapama, chief of the Warm Springs and Wascos,
should meet half way alone and unarmed.

All the Warm Springs earnestly opposed the meeting, feeling certain that
treachery was meditated. But Queapama believed otherwise, and the two
chiefs, in sight of their people, went out to the meeting. Scarcely had
Queapama reached the Snake chief when he was treacherously murdered by a
concealed assassin. Burning for revenge, the Warm Springs renewed the
fight, when the Snakes drew off and were seen no more.

They now volunteered to go with us in pursuit of the Snakes, who, they
declared, could not be many hours ahead. The Snakes, they argued, could
be easily overtaken as they were practically in their own country and
would travel leisurely. We knew the two tribes were traditional enemies
and the presence of their dead chief was evidence that their friendship
for us could be relied upon. The Warm Springs, however, held the Snakes
in great dread and never ventured far into their country. The present
camp was on neutral territory, and was the main hunting grounds of the
former tribe. Polina was especially dreaded, and was believed by the
Warm Springs to be bullet-proof. Many told of having shot him in the
middle of t