ks, who promptly dismounted and walked
into the chief's lodge. Baroney took the riderless horse in lead, and
rode back to us with Pike, through the now silent but still scowling
crowds of warriors.

The moment they had joined us, our leader, as cool and steady as
throughout his daring venture, gave the word to march. The savages
continued to stand silent and motionless, watching us slip out of their
clutches without so much as a parting yell. Yet had it not been for the
unequalled courage and firmness and sheer cool audacity of our leader,
there can be no doubt we should have been in for a most desperate fight.

In justice to the rank and file, I must add that the men had borne
themselves throughout the affair in a manner fully creditable to their
leader, who afterwards told us that he had counted upon our disposing of
at least a hundred of the enemy before being ourselves rendered _hors de
combat_. The men, I believe, half regretted that they had not had the
opportunity to test the accuracy of this estimate. This was certainly
true of Meek, than whom no man was ever more maligned by his name.

Baroney was no less courageous than the enlisted men, as was shown by
the cool manner in which he returned the following day to look for
Sparks. Both the brave lads overtook us during the afternoon, safe and
sound, and Sparks riding the stolen horse!

They arrived shortly before we came upon the first outgoing encampment
of the Spaniards, and relieved by their safe return, we swung away at
our best pace in the tracks of the invaders. Our immediate purpose was
to follow the trace made by these soldiers of His Most Catholic Majesty,
and so discover in what direction their expedition had turned after the
visit to the Pawnees.

CHAPTER XVI

THE BARRIER OF ROCK

After several adventures and misadventures, during a march of several
days to the southward, over a broken, hilly country, in which we lost
the Spanish trace, we came to the broad, shallow channel of the Arkansas
River. Here Lieutenant Wilkinson and a party consisting of Sergeant
Ballenger, four privates, and the two or three Osages who had continued
with us thus far, were detached to descend the river for the purpose of
exploring the unknown reaches of its lower course to its junction with
the Mississippi. A canoe was hewn out for them from the trunk of a
cottonwood tree, and another made of skins on a frame of branches, and
they set off bravely downstream, th