eep which came up to the door; and if there had only been a dhrop of
the cratur', we should have lived like princes. One thing there was
which the Indians had not carried off, and that was a wheel-barrow.
When Klitz saw it, `We will go to California!' says he. Says I, `I'm
the boy for it!' So, as we had our muskets and a few rounds of
ammunition, afther drying the mutton and making some other necessary
preparations we set off. The Indians had left the country, and no one
stopped us, so surely your honour won't be so hard as to stop us now!"

"That must depend on what Lieutenant Broadstreet has to say in the
matter," I observed. "I am under his orders, and will conduct you to
him."

Klitz elongated his visage on hearing this, but Barney took the matter
with his usual good-humour.

In consideration of the dangers the men had gone through, and their
conduct in the defence of the farm, the lieutenant treated them kindly.
He could not allow them to continue on their way to California, of
course, which they most certainly would never have reached, but he
inflicted no greater punishment than ordering them to mount the
baggage-mules and return with us.

We did not entirely rely on Barney's report that the Indians had left
the neighbourhood, though it perhaps made us less cautious than we would
otherwise have been. As I was well-mounted, I frequently went on a
considerable distance ahead, eager to fall in with some one from whom I
might gain intelligence of Uncle Jeff, Clarice, or our friends. I did
not suppose that Uncle Jeff would remain in the mountains where we had
left him, but that he would certainly have come down to meet us; or
perhaps, should Bartle and Gideon have escaped, he might have rejoined
them and returned to Roaring Water.

We had got through the pass, and were about to march to the southward,
in the hope of overtaking the enemy, should they be still lingering in
that part of the country, when I saw smoke ascending from the level
ground close to the foot of the mountain, and some way ahead. On
watching it, I was satisfied that it rose from an encampment of white or
red men. As there was little doubt that information could be obtained
from the inhabitants, whoever they were, the sergeant and I, with two
well-mounted troopers, rode forward, keeping on the alert to guard
against coming suddenly on an enemy.

As we got nearer, I saw, by means of a telescope which I had obtained at
the fort, an India