As I had entered the camp I had seen horses standing, tied in front of the lodges, and now, as I was going back, I stooped down in front of a lodge, where all was dark, cut loose a horse, and walked away, leading it by its rope.  No one saw me, and when I had passed beyond the furthest lodge I mounted the horse and rode along slowly.  After I had gone a little further, I went faster, and soon I was at the place where we had left our things.  There were many horses there, brought in by the younger men that had been looking for loose horses, and some cut loose by those who had gone into camp.  Every minute other men kept coming up, and presently all were there.  The young men had filled their saddle-pads with grass, and now each one chose a good horse, and mounting it drove off the herd.  I had only one horse, yet my heart was glad, for it was the first I had ever taken.

For a time we rode slowly, but presently, faster; and when day had come we had gone a long way.  The horses were still being driven in separate bunches, so that each man should know which were his—­the ones he had taken; but soon after day broke, and there had been time for each to look over his animals, they were bunched together, and we went faster.  Nevertheless, the leader said to us:  “Friends, do not hurry the horses too much; they are poor, and we must not run them too hard.  The horses on which the Crows will follow us are poor also, and they cannot overtake us.”

We rode fast until afternoon, when we came down into the valley of a river, and there stopped to let our horses feed.  Two young men with fresh horses were left behind, on top of the highest hills, to watch the trail, to see whether the enemy were following us.  After we had been there for a time, and the horses had eaten, the leader called out, “Friends, the enemy are pursuing; we must hurry on the horses.”  In a moment we had caught our animals, and mounted, and were driving on the herd; for, far back, we could see the scouts who had been left behind coming toward us, riding fast, and making signs that people had been seen.  After we had left the valley, and were among the hills, the leader left two other young men, on fresh horses, behind, to see whether the enemy crossed the river, and followed; while we went on with the horses.  We rode all that night and part of the next day, and then stopped again; and that night, in the middle of the night, the scouts overtook us, and told us that the enemy had not crossed the river, where we had first slept, but had turned about there, and had gone back.  “There were only a few of them,” they said.  “We two were almost tempted to attack them, but we had been told only to watch them, and we thought it better to do that.”  Four days afterward we reached our village.