ncle Jeff, he could tell me nothing. As my uncle, however, had not
rejoined Winnemak, I concluded that the latter was still in the
mountains, well contented with his new locality, and engaged in shooting
and trapping.

"Can you give me any information about my other friends?" I asked.

One white man, he said, had gone to Winnemak's camp; and from his
description I had little doubt that the person he spoke of was either
Bartle or Gideon. I was very sure, however, that either of them would
without delay have rejoined Uncle Jeff. What Piomingo told me about the
other caused me much anxiety. He had been captured by the Arrapahas, he
said, who had carried him about with them; probably, according to their
cruel custom, with the intention of ultimately putting him to death in
some barbarous manner.

As Piomingo volunteered to lead a party of us in search of the
marauders, who still had, according to his report, a white man with
them, I at once accepted his offer, and would gladly have set off
immediately; but it was important first to carry assistance to Uncle
Jeff and Clarice, who could not fail--so Manley thought--to require it.
He and I, with twenty troopers and some of our baggage animals,
accordingly turned to the northward, leaving Sergeant Custis and the
remainder of our force to watch the pass, in order to prevent the return
of the Arrapahas.

We pushed on as fast as our horses would go, the lieutenant being fully
as eager as I was, but it took us two days to reach the foot of the
mountains. Manley declared that he could not have found the spot had it
not been for my assistance. We here formed camp, while he and I, with
six of our strongest baggage animals, and men to look after them, took
our way up the mountain.

I need scarcely describe the route. Sometimes we made tolerable
progress, at other times we had to use the greatest caution to escape
falling over the precipices which we had now on one side, now on the
other. But the most arduous part of the undertaking was forcing our way
through the primeval forests, over trunks of trees, and through pools of
water, into which the horses sank up to their knees. The poor brutes had
an uncomfortable time of it. The men, armed with thick sticks, went
behind whacking them unmercifully, while others dragged away at their
heads. I was thankful to have the task of acting as guide, although it
was not an easy one--having every now and then to climb over fallen logs
or leap