Had the owner of the herd suddenly appeared in camp, he could not have received such an ovation as was extended Priest the next morning when his presence became known.  From the cook to the foreman, they gathered around our bed, where The Rebel sat up in the blankets and held an informal reception; and two hours afterward he was riding on the right point of the herd as if nothing had happened.  We had a fair trail up Big Box Elder, and for the following few days, or until the source of that creek was reached, met nothing to check our course.  Our foreman had been riding in advance of the herd, and after returning to us at noon one day, reported that the trail turned a due northward course towards the Missouri, and all herds had seemingly taken it.  As we had to touch at Fort Benton, which was almost due westward, he had concluded to quit the trail and try to intercept the military road running from Fort Maginnis to Benton.  Maginnis lay to the south of us, and our foreman hoped to strike the military road at an angle on as near a westward course as possible.

Accordingly after dinner he set out to look out the country, and took me with him.  We bore off toward the Missouri, and within half an hour’s ride after leaving the trail we saw some loose horses about three miles distant, down in a little valley through which flowed a creek towards the Musselshell.  We reined in and watched the horses several minutes, when we both agreed from their movements that they were hobbled.  We scouted out some five or six miles, finding the country somewhat rough, but passable for a herd and wagon.  Flood was anxious to investigate those hobbled horses, for it bespoke the camp of some one in the immediate vicinity.  On our return, the horses were still in view, and with no little difficulty, we descended from the mesa into the valley and reached them.  To our agreeable surprise, one of them was wearing a bell, while nearly half of them were hobbled, there being twelve head, the greater portion of which looked like pack horses.  Supposing the camp, if there was one, must be up in the hills, we followed a bridle path up stream in search of it, and soon came upon four men, placer mining on the banks of the creek.

When we made our errand known, one of these placer miners, an elderly man who seemed familiar with the country, expressed some doubts about our leaving the trail, though he said there was a bridle path with which he was acquainted across to the military road.  Flood at once offered to pay him well if he would pilot us across to the road, or near enough so that we could find our way.  The old placerman hesitated, and after consulting among his partners, asked how we were fixed for provision, explaining that they wished to remain a month or so longer, and that game had been scared away from the immediate vicinity, until it had become hard to secure meat.  But he found Flood ready in that quarter, for he immediately offered to kill a beef and load down any two pack