CHAPTER XXIV.
A SAD SIGHT.
A day later, while the wagon-train was slowly winding through a mountain defile, they encountered a sight which made even the stout-hearted leader look grave. Stretched out stiff and stark were two figures, cold in death. They were men of middle age, apparently. From each the scalp had been removed, thus betraying that the murderers were Indians.
"I should like to come across the red devils who did this," said Fletcher.
"What would you do with them?" asked Ferguson.
"Shoot them down like dogs, or if I could take them captive they should dangle upon the boughs of yonder tree."
"I hope I shall be ready to die when my time comes," said Ferguson; "but I want it to be in a Christian bed, and not at the hands of a dirty savage."
Just then Lawrence Peabody came up. He had been lagging in the rear, as usual.
"What have you found?" he inquired, not seeing the bodies at first, on account of the party surrounding them.