of furs piled upon each other, which point of retreat was to be defended to the last extremity. Then galloping to the front he collected his men and swept down the valley at full speed. In a few minutes they were near enough to observe that the enemy only numbered four Indians, who were driving about a hundred horses, and so busy were they in keeping the troop together that Cameron and his men were close upon them before they were observed.
It was too late to escape. Joe Blunt and Henri had already swept round and cut off their retreat. In this extremity the Indians slipped from the backs of their steeds and darted into the bushes, where they were safe from pursuit, at least on horseback, while the trappers got behind the horses and drove them towards the camp.
At this moment one of the horses sprang ahead of the others and made for the mountain, with its mane and tail flying wildly in the breeze.
“Marrow-bones and buttons!” shouted one of the men; “there goes Dick Varley’s horse.”
“So it am!” cried Henri, and dashed off in pursuit, followed by Joe and two others.
“Why, these are our own horses,” said Cameron in surprise, as they drove them into a corner of the hills from which they could not escape.
This was true, but it was only half the truth, for, besides their own horses, they had secured upwards of seventy Indian steeds. The Indians who had captured the horses belonging to Pierre and his party were a small band of robbers who had travelled, as was afterwards learned, from the south, stealing horses from various tribes as they went along. In an evil hour they fell in with Pierre’s party and carried off their steeds, which they drove to a pass leading from one valley to the other. Here they united them with the main band of their ill-gotten gains, and while the greater number descended into the plains in search of more booty, four of them were sent into the mountains with the horses already procured.
Cameron immediately organized a party to go out in search of Pierre and his companions, about whose fate he became intensely anxious, and in the course of half an hour as many men as he could spare with safety were despatched in the direction of the Blue Mountains.
