not under any circumstances attempt to leave the country
until my object was completely gained.

And where were the Indians? They were assembled in great numbers at a
spot about twenty miles distant, and there at that very moment they
were engaged in their warlike ceremonies. The scarcity of buffalo in
the vicinity of La Bonte's Camp, which would render their supply of
provisions scanty and precarious, had probably prevented them from
assembling there; but of all this we knew nothing until some weeks
after.

Shaw lashed his horse and galloped forward, I, though much more vexed
than he, was not strong enough to adopt this convenient vent to my
feelings; so I followed at a quiet pace, but in no quiet mood. We
rode up to a solitary old tree, which seemed the only place fit for
encampment. Half its branches were dead, and the rest were so scantily
furnished with leaves that they cast but a meager and wretched shade,
and the old twisted trunk alone furnished sufficient protection from the
sun. We threw down our saddles in the strip of shadow that it cast, and
sat down upon them. In silent indignation we remained smoking for an
hour or more, shifting our saddles with the shifting shadow, for the sun
was intolerably hot.

CHAPTER XIII

HUNTING INDIANS

At last we had reached La Bonte's Camp, toward which our eyes had turned
so long. Of all weary hours, those that passed between noon and sunset
of the day when we arrived there may bear away the palm of exquisite
discomfort. I lay under the tree reflecting on what course to pursue,
watching the shadows which seemed never to move, and the sun which
remained fixed in the sky, and hoping every moment to see the men and
horses of Bisonette emerging from the woods. Shaw and Henry had ridden
out on a scouting expedition, and did not return until the sun was
setting. There was nothing very cheering in their faces nor in the news
they brought.

"We have been ten miles from here," said Shaw. "We climbed the highest
butte we could find, and could not see a buffalo or Indian; nothing but
prairie for twenty miles around us."

Henry's horse was quite disabled by clambering up and down the sides of
ravines, and Shaw's was severely fatigued.

After supper that evening, as we sat around the fire, I proposed to Shaw
to wait one day longer in hopes of Bisonette's arrival, and if he
should not come to send Delorier with the cart and baggage back to
Fort Laramie, while we ourselve