Page:Hendryx--Connie Morgan with the Mounted.djvu/121

Rh the conformation of the valley necessitated frequent fording of the river to avoid impassable barriers. Again and again, as the canoe shot down stream, Connie and the scout saw signs of these crossings upon gravel bars and clay banks, and at each crossing the trail grew fresher.

Two weeks before, while ascending the river, the officers had passed the tepees of isolated families of Brushwoods, who had strayed to the larger river to fish. They had passed, also, three different outfits of prospectors and the post of "Soapy" White, a free-trader whose record in his dealings with the Indians of many tribes was described on the books of the Mounted as "shady."

The tepees of the Indians were missing, now. At each deserted camp the two landed, carefully examined the ground, and read signs of hurried flight and the abandonment of the poor effects of the campers—effects that the Mooseheads, not deeming of sufficient value to carry away, had ruthlessly destroyed, leaving only charred remnants of burned tepees and nets, and the broken fragments of utensils.

The white prospectors had fared no better. Their camps were deserted and their goods. carried