disagreeable event, which would have undoubtedly happened, as we were
camped only two miles from them, and the prairie was flat until you came
to the swell just mentioned. There we beheld seven strong horses,
bridled with our lassoes. We had no saddles; but necessity rides without
one. The Indians had also killed a one-year-old colt, and taken enough
of the meat to last us two days; so that when we started (and we did so
long before the Umbiquas began to stir) we had the prospect of
reaching the fishing-post thirty hours before them.

[Illustration: "We halted on the bank of a small river."]

We knew that they would rest two hours in the day, as they were
naturally anxious to keep their stolen horses in good condition, having
a long journey before them ere they would enter into their own
territory. With us, the case was different, there were but forty miles,
which we could travel on horseback, and we did not care what became of
the animals afterwards. Consequently, we did not spare their legs; the
spirited things, plump as they were, having grazed two months without
any labour, carried us fast enough. When we halted on the bank of a
small river, to water them and let them breathe, they did not appear
much tired, although we had had a run of twenty-eight miles.

At about eleven o'clock we reached the confines of the rocky ground;
here we rested for three hours, and took a meal, of which we were very
much in want, having tasted nothing but berries and plums since our
departure from the schooner, for we had been so much engrossed by the
digging of the cachette that we had forgotten to take with us any kind
of provision.

Our flight, or, to say better, our journey, passed without anything