We had an early dinner and four others and myself set out for the head of the lake, we rode hard all that afternoon and to our great surprise we never saw an Indian.  We passed a number of camps where they had been, but their trails all showed that they had pulled out for the north.  Seeing this we turned back and struck the emigrant trail about ten miles from where Jim was camped.  Just as we struck the emigrants trail I looked off to the south about a quarter of a mile and saw nine head of horses, and they were heading in the same direction we were going.  I called the other men’s attention to them and said, “Let’s capture those Indian ponies.”  You may imagine our surprise when we got near them to find they were not Indian ponies but good American horses and several of them had collar marks on them showing that they had been worked lately.  We drove them on to camp, and when we put them in the corral we found them to be perfectly gentle.  Bridger and the balance of the men came to see them, and every man had his own view where they had come from.  But we never knew for certain whom they belonged to.  The next morning we pulled out very early.  The third day we crossed the Sierra Nevada mountains without any thing of interest happening to us.  In two days more we reached the Sacramento river.  We were now about forty miles above Sacramento City, California.  We camped here about the middle of the afternoon.  It being Saturday Jim thought we would rest the balance of the day.  After we had eaten our dinner Jim called all the men of the train together and told them that they were out of all danger now from the Indians and would have no further use for a guide and that our contract with them was ended, and that he and I would like to start back for New Mexico Monday morning.  In a short time they settled up with us, paying us our due with grateful thanks for our care of them on their dangerous journey.  I now went to the men who were with me when I found the horses.  I said, “Some of those horses belong to you, how many do you want?”

They all looked surprised, and one said, “They are not our horses, they are yours.  You found them.”

I answered, “Now, boys, that is not fair; drive them up and let me select three and you may have the balance to divide as you choose among you.”

This seemed to please them; and they drove the horses up at once.  I chose the three I liked best, and I afterwards found them all to be good saddle horses.  Bridger and I now went to work making our pack saddles and getting ready for our long and tedious journey back to New Mexico, a journey where wild beasts and still wilder savages might lurk behind any tree or bush, a journey where at that time all one could see for hundreds of miles was thick forests, and trackless prairies; a journey of danger and fatigue which the people of this later day of rapid travel could not be made to understand.

The next morning after breakfast was over a man came to me and said, Mrs. Lynch and her daughter Lizzie would like to see me.  These were the two ladies I had rescued from the Indians.  I had not spoken to them since I left them with Bridger at the camp near Honey Lake.  As I came near to the elder lady she came to meet me and holding out her hand, clasping mine she said, “Are you going to leave us tomorrow?”