esent. We accordingly made up
our minds to accompany old Folkard. We felt that, in gratitude to him
for having preserved our lives, we were bound to do as he wished.

Having reached the spot where he had left his mules with his traps and
peltries, we turned our horses' heads eastward. As we rode along he
told us that he had come upon our trail, and that soon afterwards he had
fallen in with one which he knew must be made by an Indian war-party,
and feeling sure that they intended us mischief he had followed them up.
He had scarcely expected, however, to find us still alive; but having
stolen up to the camp, he saw the state to which our liquor had
fortunately reduced our captors, and had at once formed the plan for
liberating us so happily carried out. One of Dick's first questions was
about Charley. The old trapper replied that he had failed to hear of
him; but he still held out hopes that our friend might have escaped, and
that some well-disposed Indians might have spared his life, and taken
care of him, hoping to induce him to join their tribe, according to a by
no means unusual custom among them.

This idea somewhat cheered up the worthy lieutenant's spirits, and made
him unwilling to return eastward; still, as he could not remain by
himself, he agreed to accompany us. The journey appeared very long.
For the first few days we pushed forward to get beyond the reach of the
Indians, in case they should fall in with any of their tribe and venture
to pursue us. After this we were compelled, for the sake of our horses,
to make more easy stages. We had also to halt for the purpose of
providing ourselves with meat; but as we shot only for the pot, that
caused us no great delay.

At last we reached Saint Louis, where we spent several months enjoying
the hospitality of numerous friends to whom we had letters of
introduction. For a time we were looked upon as heroes on a small scale
by society; but probably the hunters and trappers who frequent that city
would have considered our adventures as every-day occurrences and
scarcely worth talking about.

Old Folkard, having disposed of his peltries, and obtained new traps and
a fresh outfit, started westward in the course of a fortnight, declaring
that he could not breathe among the bricks and mortar. He promised that
he would not fail to look out for Charley, for whose recovery, however,
even Dick, by this time, had begun to despair. We were beginning to get
a littl