Page:The Columbia river , or, Scenes and adventures during a residence of six years on the western side of the Rocky Mountains among various tribes of Indians hitherto unknown (Volume 1).djvu/278

 expected to have arrived at Mr. Read's house, she came in sight of the spot on which it had stood; but was horror-struck at beholding there only a smoking ruin, with fresh marks of blood scattered all around. Her fortitude, however, did not forsake her, and she determined to ascertain whether any of the party were still living.

Having concealed the children and horses in an adjoining cluster of trees, she armed herself with a tomahawk and a large knife, and after night-fall she cautiously crept towards the scene of carnage. All was silent and lonely, and at every step fresh traces of blood met her view. Anxious to ascertain if any had escaped the massacre, she repeatedly called out the various names of the party, but no voice responded. By the expiring glare of the smouldering timbers she observed a band of prairie wolves engaged in a sanguinary banquet. The sound of her voice scared them, and they fled. Fearful that they might bend their way to the spot in which she had deposited her precious charge, she hastened thither, and arrived just in time to save her children from three of those ferocious animals which were then approaching them.

From thence she proceeded the following morning towards a range of mountains not far