had all gone off together in a northerly direction.  We were now near the north end of Honey lake, and I had about given up hopes of ever seeing the women again, but I did not tell my thoughts to my companions.  The trail was so plain that I now mounted my horse; we followed at a pretty rapid gate two or three miles, when we saw that a few tracks had turned directly towards the lake.  I dismounted and examined them and found the two shoe tracks went with the small party.  I was now convinced that this was a party of squaws going to the lake to fish; and I felt more encouraged to keep up the pursuit.  We were within a mile of the lake at this time.  We rode as fast as we could and keep the trail in sight.  We soon came in sight of the lake; looking to the right I saw a small band of squaws building a fire.  I called the men to me and told them that I believed the women we were looking for were with those squaws, and if they were, I thought we could rescue them.

“I think our best plan will be to ride slowly until they see us and then make a dash as fast as our horses can carry us; if the white women are with them, we will ride right up to them, if they are tied I will jump down and cut them loose,” and pointing at two of the men I said, “You two men will take them up behind you and take the lead back, and the rest of us will protect you.”

We did not ride much farther before the squaws discovered us at which they began to shout, “Hyha,” which meant “They’re coming they’re coming.”

In a moment we were in their midst, and sure enough the women were there and tied fast to a small tree, a short distance from where the squaws were building the fire.

What happened in the next few minutes I could never describe.  The women knew me at once and with cries and laughter, touching, beyond description greeted me.

In an instant I was off my horse and cutting them loose from the tree, at the same time the men were circling around us with guns cocked ready to shoot the first squaw that interfered with us.

To my great surprise I did not see a bow or arrow among them or a tomahawk either; as quick as I had the women loose I helped them up behind the men I had selected to take them away from captivity back to meet the train.  As soon as we had left them of all the noise I ever heard those squaws made the worst.  I think they did this so the bucks might know that they had lost their captives and might come to their assistance.  Where the bucks were I never knew.  After riding four or five miles we slacked our speed, and the women began telling us how the whole thing had occurred.  It seemed they had got to the camping ground early in the afternoon of the second day after leaving us and instead of staking out their horses they turned them loose, and about dusk the old man and his son went out to look for the horses, were gone a couple of hours and came back without them.  This made them all very uneasy.  The next morning