About forty steps from the wagons I found the remains of three people.  One was a large body, that of a man, and one a medium size, which I took for the body of a woman, and the other was a small child.  All there was left of them was their bones and some hair, the Wolves having stripped the flesh entirely from them.

I signaled to my scouts to come to me.  As soon as they came, I told them to take all the grub out of the wagons and put it in a pile, and I would go back and meet the train and have three men appointed to distribute the stuff among the families.  I told the boys that there were two trunks in the wagons and to break them open and see what was in them.

They did so and found them full of women’s clothes, some of the garments of very nice material.  I rode back and met the train and told Jim what I had found, and what I thought we had best do.

He selected three men to divide the provisions among the families of the train.  I never inquired what they did with the clothes that was in the trunks.

We hunted all around in every direction, but we could find no more bodies, so if there had been others, the Indians must have taken them into captivity or, what was more likely, the Coyotes had dragged them away into the brush beyond our reach.

After the emigrants had stored the provisions in their wagons, we went on to the place we had selected for a camping ground for that night.  I preceded the train a half a mile, and I found plenty of Indian signs, but they were all old.  All their trails were pointing south that night.  I asked Jim why all the Indians were going south this time of the year.  He told me that they were going to hunt big game such as Buffalo, Bison and Elk, and they had to go further south to find such game, and he said, he should not be surprised if we did not see another Indian until we struck the Sink of Humboldt.

“But you may look out then, for we will find them then in plenty.”  As Jim finished this remark, one of my scouts came riding into camp at full speed.  Jim and I went to meet him, for we suspected that something was up.  As soon as he got in speaking distance he said to me, “There are a thousand Indians up on that ridge yonder, and they are coming this way; they are all on horse back, and there are women and children with them.”  Jim asked how far off they were.  He said he didn’t believe they were over a mile from camp at this minute; Jim mounted his horse and went to the herders and ordered them to corral the stock at once, at the same time telling every man to get his gun and form in line for the Indians were coming upon us, and the reader may be sure that everybody and every animal in that train was moving lively for a few minutes.

As soon as the stock was corralled, Jim rode up to me with one of the sticks that had a scalp on it in his hand.  Handing it to me, he said, “Here, Will, take this and ride out a little ways from the corral, and when the Indians come where they can see you, wave it over your head so they will be sure to see the scalps, and I will get another bunch and I will stand close to you at the same time.”