In the Stronghold of the Piutes [pp. 583-593]

Iv the Strotng/-lzold of the Piutes.
'V
THE COLUM-N ON THE MARCH.
by May's men, but the Indian lookouts
had spied with field glasses the dust of
the approaching column hours before
the mountains were reached, had quickly
broken camp, and made off by various
and bewildering courses, leaving little
behind as traces of their brief occupancy.
Coming upon the abandoned tepees and
xvick-i-ups, the whites found that the
renegade band had marked out and made
some use of a race track on which they
intended to have a summer's sport with
the California stock. Your Western Indian cares nothing for circular or kiteshaped tracks, but speeds his pony
on a course straight as an arrow. In
their revelry they had not relaxed their
vigilance, but kept outposts on the
high peaks overlooking the surrounding
plains. On one of these May's men had
seen a signal smoke about ten o'clock
of the day they reached the lately abandoned Indian camp.
At the Blue Mountains the Indians
had largely added to their equine possessions by rounding up the herds of
Hudson and Johnson, firing upon and
running off the few cowboys who were
in charge of them. The Indian ruse of
separating into small bands, traveling
by different courses, and finally coming
together at a predetermined rendezvous,
was evidently the game in this case.
May concluded that they would make
for their stronghold in the La Sals, and
without delay or paying any attention
to trails which crossed his course, set
out in a direct line for the hazv mass of
mountains to the north. In spite of
this, the Indians had reached the rnountains first, change of mount giving them
great advantage in the chase. After
getting well into the mountains, a disagreement occurred among May's men
as to plans of pursuit, and the leader
was unable to harmonize them. Instead
of realizing that in cohesion lay their
only hope of successfully engaging the
Indians, the men separated into two
parties, May continuing in command of
one; and the other, composed largely of
men from Rico, Colorado, chose Wil
586
[Dec.