No one was more annoyed by this unfortunate occurrence than Ben Jones.
He declared he would actually have given his whole arrears of pay,
amounting to upwards of a year's wages, rather than be balked of such a
capital shot. Mr. Stuart, however, represented what might have been the
consequence of so rash an act. Life for life is the Indian maxim. The
whole tribe would have made common cause in avenging the death of a
warrior. The party were but seven dismounted men, with a wide mountain
region to traverse, infested by these people, and which might all be
roused by signal fires. In fact, the conduct of the band of marauders in
question, showed the perseverance of savages when once they have fixed
their minds upon a project. These fellows had evidently been silent and
secretly dogging the party for a week past, and a distance of a
hundred and fifty miles, keeping out of sight by day, lurking about the
encampment at night, watching all their movements, and waiting for a
favorable moment when they should be off their guard. The menace of
Mr. Stuart, in their first interview, to shoot the giant chief with
his pistol, and the fright caused among the warriors by presenting
the rifles, had probably added the stimulus of pique to their usual
horse-stealing propensities.
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