als, mounted upon Gabriel's horse, and calling out to the three
robbers, "Stop him; Russy, Carlton--stop him!" At that moment, Gabriel's
lasso fell upon his shoulders, and he fell off the horse as dead as if
struck by lightning: his neck was broken.

Having gained our horses, we saddled them, and took our rifles, not
doubting but that we would easily capture the remaining rascals, as the
speed of our two steeds was very superior to that of the others. After
half an hour's hard riding, we fell in with Roche and our companions,
who had been equally fortunate. It appeared that the fellow who had been
riding my horse had received a severe fall against a tree; and while one
of his companions started in chase of the animal, who had galloped off,
the two others tied their horses to the trees, and went to his
assistance. When thus occupied, they were surprised, and bound hand and
foot by Roche and his party.

We brought back our prisoners, and when we arrived at the burrow, we
found that, far from having lost anything by the robbers, we had, on the
contrary, obtained articles which we wanted. One of the lawyers found in
the stone jug enough of whisky to fill his flask; the parson got another
rifle, to replace that which he had lost in the prairie, and the pouches
and powder-horns of the three first robbers were found well supplied
with powder and balls. We also took possession of four green Mackinau
blankets and a bag of ground coffee.

We heartily thanked Providence, who had thrown the rascals in our way,
and, after a good meal, we resumed our journey in a southern direction,
each of the three lawyers leading, by a stout rope, one of the brigands,
who were gagged and their hands firmly bound behind their backs. During
the whole day, the parson amused himself with preaching honesty and
morality to our prisoners, who, seeing now that they had not the least
chance to escape, walked briskly alongside of the horses.

Towards evening we encamped in one of those plains, a mile in
circumference, which are so frequently met with in the forests of the
west. We had performed a journey of twenty miles, and that, with the
forced ride which our beasts had performed in the morning, had quite
tired them out. Besides, having now four men on foot, we could not
proceed so fast as before. We lighted a fire and fed our prisoners,
putting two of them in the centre of our circles, while the two others,
who were much braised by their falls of the