ch
obviously had caused the victims to stop there.

Will walked back slowly and gravely to his comrades.

"Did you find water, young William?" asked the Little Giant jovially.

"I did," replied the lad briefly.

"Then why does that gloom set upon your brow?"

"Because I found something else, too."

"What else do we need? Water fur ourselves an' the animals is all we
want."

"But I found something else, I tell you, Tom Bent, and it was not a
sight pleasant to see."

The Little Giant noticed the shudder in the lad's tones, and he asked
more seriously:

"Signs of hostile bands comin', young William?"

"No, not that, but signs where they have passed, skeletons of those whom
they have slain, just beyond the bushes there, picked clean, white and
glistening. Come with me and see!"

The others, who heard, went also, and the men looked reflectively at the
scene.

"I've seen its like often," said Boyd. "The emigrants push on, straight
into the Indian country. Neither hardships, nor troops, nor the Indians
themselves can stop 'em. Wherever a party is cut off, two come to take
its place. I guess this group was surprised, and killed without a chance
to fight back."

"How do you know that?" asked Will.

"'Cause the wagons are turned over. That shows that the horses were
still hitched to 'em, when the firin' from ambush began, and in their
frightened struggles tipped 'em on one side. Suppose we go through 'em."

"What for, Jim?"

"This must have been done at least a couple of months ago. The
weather-beaten canvas covers and the general condition of the wagons
show that. War not being then an open matter the Indians might have
hurried away without making a thorough overhauling. Then, too, it might
have been done by wandering Piegans or Blackfeet or Northern Cheyennes,
who, knowing they were on Sioux territory, were anxious to get away with
their spoil as quickly as they could."

"Good sound reasonin', Jim," said the Little Giant, "an' we'll shorely
take a good look through them wagons."

The wagons, as usual with those crossing the plains, contained many
little boxes and lockers and secret places, needful on such long
journeys, and they searched minutely through every square inch of the
interior space. The Indians had not been so bad at the sack themselves,
but they found several things of value, some medicines in a small
locker, two saws, several gimlets and other tools, and under a false
bottom in one of the