fatigue, and was considerably bruised from his tumble off his horse.

Several nights after Carson's escapade, about an hour after dark
the party saw before them a light which they thought might indicate
the proximity of an Indian camp. As some of the men who had been
out to reconnoitre approached it, they discovered they were not
mistaken in their surmises, and upon their return to camp and
reporting what they had seen, the captain thought it a wise plan
to move out as quickly as possible. The Indians whom they had seen
numbered about a hundred, and they were seated around about fifteen
fires; some of them were women and they appeared to be very busy
drying meat; the party had evidently been out on a hunt. A large
number of horses were grazing in the vicinity of the camp, and the
majority of the warriors were smoking their pipes, while their squaws
were hard at work.

Captain Williams pushed ahead all that night and the greater portion
of the next day before he dared to go into camp. They continued on
for several days more, then made a temporary camp for the purpose of
trapping for beaver. In a short time the men and horses recovered
from the effects of their toilsome journey. The latter began to get
fat, their feet and backs, which had become sore, were healing up
rapidly, and they were soon in as fine a condition as when they left
St. Louis. The men were having a good time, securing plenty of
beaver, and the camp resounded with laughter at the jokes which were
passed around.

For several weeks they had seen no signs of Indians, but one morning
one of the men discovered that an Indian had been caught in a trap,
from which, however, he had extricated himself, as it was found near