d off in pursuit, followed by Joe
and two others.

"Why, these are our own horses," said Cameron in surprise, as they
drove them into a corner of the hills from which they could not
escape.

This was true, but it was only half the truth, for, besides their own
horses, they had secured upwards of seventy Indian steeds; a most
acceptable addition to their stud, which, owing to casualties and
wolves, had been diminishing too much of late. The fact was that the
Indians who had captured the horses belonging to Pierre and his party
were a small band of robbers who had travelled, as was afterwards
learned, a considerable distance from the south, stealing horses from
various tribes as they went along. As we have seen, in an evil hour
they fell in with Pierre's party and carried off their steeds, which
they drove to a pass leading from one valley to the other. Here they
united them with the main band of their ill-gotten gains, and while
the greater number of the robbers descended farther into the plains in
search of more booty, four of them were sent into the mountains with
the horses already procured. These four, utterly ignorant of the
presence of white men in the valley, drove their charge, as we have
seen, almost into the camp.

Cameron immediately organized a party to go out in search of Pierre
and his companions, about whose fate he became intensely anxious,
and in the course of half-an-hour as many men as he could spare with
safety were despatched in the direction of the Blue Mountains.

CHAPTER XXII.

_Charlie's adventures with savages and bears_--_Trapping life_.

It is one thing to chase a horse; it is another thing to catch it.
Little consideration and less sagacity are required to convince us of
the truth of that fact.

The reader may perhaps venture to think this rather a trifling fact.
We are not so sure of that. In this world of fancies, to have _any_
fact incontestably proved and established is a comfort, and whatever
is a source of comfort to mankind is worthy of notice. Surely our
reader won't deny that! Perhaps he will, so we can only console
ourself with the remark that there are people in this world who would
deny _anything_--who would deny that there was a nose on their face if
you said there was!

Well, to return to the point, which was the chase of a horse in the
abstract; from which we will rapidly diverge to the chase of Dick
Varley's horse in particular. This noble charger, having be