It appeared, they had been so far fortunate in escaping an encounter with Indians; but this, as in our case, was most likely due to the passage of the caravan. We knew that the red-skinned robbers would be too much occupied with the train itself and its more immediate stragglers, to be looking out for any so far in the rear as we; and to this circumstance, no doubt, were we indebted for the uninterrupted travel we had achieved. A greater proximity to the train would have rendered our passage more perilous. Sure-shot, though a slouch in his dress, was no simpleton. The trick of taking up the barrow was, no doubt, a conception of his brain, as well as its being borne upon the shoulders of the Irishman--who, in all likelihood, had performed the _role_ of wheeling it from Fort Smith to the Big Timbers, and was expected to push it before him to the edge of the Pacific Ocean! It was evident that Patrick was tired of his task: for they had not made much progress in their Homeric supper, before he once more returned to the subject. "But shure now, comrayde! we moight manage widout the borra--seein' as we've got into the buffalos' counthry. Aren't them bastes as aizy to kill as tame cows? Shure we'd niver be widout mate as long as our powder lasts?" "Jess t'other way, ye fool! We're a going _out_ o' the buffuler country, an' into perts where theer ain't a anymal bigger than a rat. On t'other side o' the mountings, theer ain't no beests o' any kind-- neery one; an' its jess theer we'll want that eer bag o' meel. Ef we don't take it along, we'll sterve for certing." "Be me sowl! I'd ruther carry the male on my showlders. There's liss of it now; an' maybe I could manage it, iv you'ld only carry the spids, an' thim other things. We moight lave the knapsicks an' kyarthridge-box behind. What use ud they be in Kalifornya? They'll only lade to our detiction by the throops out there." "Don't ee be skeert 'bout thet, kimrade! Ef theer's troops in Californey, they'll hev theer hands full 'ithout troublin' us, I reeking. We ain't like to be the only two critters as hain't got a _pass_ for the diggins. Ne'er a bit o't. We'll find deserters out theer es thick as blue-bottles on a barkiss. Certingly we shell. Besides, Petrick, we needn't take the knepsacks all the way out theer, nor the berra neythur, nor nuthin' else we've brought from the Fort." "Fwhat div yez mane?" interrogated the Irishman--evidently puzzled to interpret the other's speech. "We kin leave all them fixing in Morming City." "But will the thrain be afther thravellin' that way? Shure ye don't know that." "Certing it will. A putty consid'able pert o' it air made up o' Mormings; an' they'll be boun' to the Salt Lake. We kin foller them an' drop t'other. In the Morming settlements, we kin swop our unyforms for suthin' else, an' the berra too. Es to the knepsacks an' cartridge-box, I guess as how I inteend to make a spec on them ere two articles."