hostilities. Not having forgotten their former troubles with these
people, they determined to pay them off in their own coin by depriving
them of the herd. A short search sufficed to discover the Indian camp.
Without waiting an instant, they put their horses to their speed and
charged in among the huts. The Indians were so completely taken by
surprise, that they became panic-struck and fled in every direction.
They, however, rallied somewhat, and a running fight commenced which
lasted some time, but which did not change matters in favor of the
Indians. The entire herd fell into the possession of the trappers.

On the same evening, after the men had wrapped themselves up in their
blankets and laid down for a sleep, and while enjoying their slumbers,
a noise reached their ears which sounded very much like distant
thunder; but a close application of the sense of hearing showed
plainly that an enemy was near at hand. Springing up, with rifle in
hand--for generally in the mountains a man's gun rests in the same
blanket with himself on all sleeping occasions--they sallied forth to
reconnoitre, and discovered a few warriors driving along a band of at
least two hundred horses. The trappers comprehended instantly that the
warriors had been to the Mexican settlements in Sonora on a thieving
expedition, and that the horses had changed hands with only one party
to the bargain. The opportunity to instill a lesson on the savage
marauders was too good to be lost.

They saluted the thieves with a volley from their rifles, which, with
the bullet-whizzing about their heads and bodies, so astonished them,
that they seemed almost immediately to forget their stolen property,
and to think only of a precipitous flight. In a few moments, the
whites found themselves masters of the field, and also of the
property. To return the animals to their owners was an impossibility;