In vain the watchers now besought Keseberg to return for Hardcoop.  Next they applied to Messrs. Graves and Breen, who alone had saddle horses able to carry the helpless man, but neither of them would risk his animals again on that perilous road.  In desperation, Messrs. William Pike, Milton Elliot, and William Eddy proposed to go out afoot and carry him in, if the wagons would wait.  Messrs. Graves and Breen, however, in language so plain and homely that it seemed heartless, declared that it was neither the voice of common sense, nor of humanity that asked the wagons to wait there in the face of danger, while three foolhardy men rushed back to look for a helpless one, whom they had been unable to succor on the previous day, and for whom they could make no provision in the future, even if they should succeed then in snatching him from the jaws of death.

This exposition of undeniable facts defeated the plans of the would-be rescuers, yet did not quiet their consciences.  When the section halted at noon, they again begged, though in vain, for horses which might enable them to do something for their deserted companion.

My father listened thoughtfully to the accounts of that harrowing incident, and although he realized that death must have ended the old man’s sufferings within a few hours after he dropped by the wayside, he could not but feel deeply the bitterness of such a fate.

Who could peer into the near future and read between its lines the greater suffering which Mr. Hardcoop had escaped, or the trials in store for us?

We were in close range of ambushed savages, lying in wait for spoils.  While the company were hurrying to get into marching order, Indians stole a milch cow and several horses belonging to Mr. Graves.  Emboldened by success, they made a raid on our next camp and stampeded a bunch of eighteen horned cattle belonging to Mr. Wolfinger and my father and Uncle Jacob, and also flesh-wounded several poor beasts with arrows.  These were more serious hindrances than we had yet experienced.  Still, undaunted by the alarming prospects before us, we immediately resumed travel with cows under yoke in place of the freshly injured oxen.

[Footnote 2:  Thornton.]

CHAPTER VI

INDIAN DEPREDATIONS—­WOLFINGER’S DISAPPEARANCE—­STANTON RETURNS WITH SUPPLIES FURNISHED BY CAPTAIN SUTTER—­DONNER WAGONS SEPARATED FROM TRAIN FOREVER—­TERRIBLE PIECE OF NEWS—­FORCED INTO SHELTER AT DONNER LAKE—­DONNER CAMP ON PROSSER CREEK.

All who managed to get beyond the sink of Ogden’s River before midnight of October 12, reached Geyser Springs without further molestation, but the belated, who encamped at the sink were surprised at daylight by the Indians, who, while the herders were hurriedly taking a cup of coffee, swooped down and killed twenty-one head of cattle.  Among the number were all of Mr. Eddy’s stock, except an ox and a cow that would not work together.  Maddened by his appalling situation, Eddy called for vengeance on his despoilers, and would have rushed to certain death, if the breaking of the lock of his rifle at the start had not stopped him.