“We shall keep on,” replied the guide quietly, “although I am sure that we are not done with our troubles.”
“What are you afraid of?”
“I am sure they will not leave us. They will follow us, and when night comes they will try to steal our horses, and if we were trapping here they would try to get our traps. I shall be surprised if we do not find that they are watching us all the while.”
“Don’t you think we had better turn back?”
“I have never travelled that way,” replied Kit Carson lightly. “The safest thing for us will be to show the Blackfeet that we are not afraid of them and are prepared to meet them.”
In accordance with the suggestion of the scout, preparations were made at once for resuming the journey. It was plain, however, that not all of the men were of the same mind as their leader and that some were still fearful of attacks by the band which they had successfully driven off. Some time elapsed, however, before the true purposes of the Blackfeet were discovered.
[CHAPTER XI—A TRYING EXPERIENCE]
Meanwhile the little band continued steadily on its way. Reuben now thought of the missing Jean less frequently. He was confident that the French trapper was abundantly able to protect himself, and, besides, there was less peril for a man alone than there was for a large force of the trappers. The Indians were intensely jealous, fearful for the safety of their possessions, and angry at the intruders for daring to come in numbers to trap along the streams which the redmen had been taught to believe belonged to them by inheritance.
There were occasions when the presence of the prowling Indians was evident, for horses several times vanished from the camp and were not found again. The traps, too, which were used by the men in their advance, frequently disappeared, and there was slight question in the mind of the young leader that the Blackfeet, although they had not dared to make an open attack since the ambuscade, none the less were steadily following their enemies.
At last it was decided that the division should go on toward the Sacramento River, while part of the force already had been sent back to Taos to dispose of the beaver skins which had been secured and also to get more traps. All the remaining men agreed to continue on to the Sacramento, and in this company was young Reuben Benton. To the lad the days were all filled with interest the chief of which was in the expeditions for hunting the savage grizzly, whose reputation for blind and savage courage increased as the men journeyed farther among the towering mountains.