The reader can have a faint idea of the situation of a young man
in a strange country and a sandy, sagebrush plain, who did not
know where to find either water or grass. If I returned to
headquarters they would escape me, and this being my first time
out in the scouting business, I could not afford to let them get
away. So, after holding a private council with myself, I decided
these Indians were spies, who were scouting for a large party of
Indians that were somewhere in this part of the country, and that
they were looking for emigrants, and in case they did not see any
such that day, they would no doubt go to water that night.
I laid there on the hill watching their movements and trying to
devise some plan by which I could capture them then.
Could I only have had Jim with me, how easy it would have been to
follow them to their camp that night, kill and scalp them and
capture their horses.
In those days an independent scout was entitled to all the stock
captured of the enemy by him.
I watched the Indians until they got to the emigrant trail, where
they stopped and held a council, apparently in doubt as to which
way they should go. After parleying for some five minutes they
struck out on the trail. I watched them for about two miles, then
they passed over a low range of hills and were out of sight.
I now mounted Mexico and rode as fast as I could, not directly
after them, but as near as I could to keep out of their sight; and
at the same time I felt confident that should they discover me,
that there was not an Indian pony in that whole country that could
catch Mexico, either in a short or long distance.
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