This was true, but it was only half the truth, for, besides their own
horses, they had secured upwards of seventy Indian steeds; a most
acceptable addition to their stud, which, owing to casualties and
wolves, had been diminishing too much of late. The fact was that the
Indians who had captured the horses belonging to Pierre and his party
were a small band of robbers who had travelled, as was afterwards
learned, a considerable distance from the south, stealing horses from
various tribes as they went along. As we have seen, in an evil hour
they fell in with Pierre's party and carried off their steeds, which
they drove to a pass leading from one valley to the other. Here they
united them with the main band of their ill-gotten gains, and while
the greater number of the robbers descended farther into the plains in
search of more booty, four of them were sent into the mountains with
the horses already procured. These four, utterly ignorant of the
presence of white men in the valley, drove their charge, as we have
seen, almost into the camp.
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