She slowly walked along looking out for food, and we followed a little way behind, but still no decisive sign to settle the awful suspense in which we lived and suffered.

We became more and more convinced that they had taken the trail of the Jayhawkers, and we had missed them on the road, or they had perished before reaching the place where we turned from their trail.
One hundred yards now to the wagons and still no sign of life, no positive sign of death, though we looked carefully for both.

We fear that perhaps there are Indians in ambush, and with nervous irregular breathing we counsel what to do.

Finally Rogers suggested that he had two charges in his shot gun and I seven in the Coll's rifle, and that I fire one of mine and await results before we ventured any nearer, and if there are any of the red devils there we can kill some of them before they get to us.

And now both closely watching the wagons I fired the shot.