There we would wait
until the command came up, as we were now running short of
rations. That day the party south struck the same trail that we
had seen the day before; two of them followed it and the other two
came to camp to report. The party that had started out north of
the trail got into camp just at dusk, tired and hungry, and the
following morning at daylight the other two from the south came
into camp. From what I could learn from them the band of Indians
they had been following were traveling along almost parallel with
the emigrant trail, looking for emigrants, as it was now getting
time that the emigrants were beginning to string along across the
plains en-route for the gold fields of California.
Our provisions had run out, so we sat up late that night awaiting
the arrival of the command, but we looked in vain.
The following morning, just as I could begin to see that it was
getting a little light in the east, myself and one assistant scout
crawled out quietly, without disturbing the other boys, to kill
some game. We had not gone far from camp when we saw nine
antelope; we both fired and both shot the same antelope. We
dressed the game and took it to camp, arriving there just as the
other two scouts came in from the south. The boys were all up in
camp, and considerable excitement prevailed among them, they
having heard two shots, and thought the Indians had attacked us.
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