“No one,” said he, “will ever discover from anything here the performance in which we have been engaged. If we are only true to each other, boys, all is safe.” The animals, with the exception of one horse and seven mules, were abandoned, but accustomed to follow the tinkle of the bell still suspended to the neck of the horse, the herd soon appeared straggling along the trail behind the company. The heartless wretches, thinking to frighten the animals away, at first shot them one by one as they came within rifle distance. Finding that the others continued to follow, they finally drove the entire herd, seventy or more in number, into a cañon near the trail, and mercilessly slaughtered all the animals composing it. Avoiding Elk City by a circuitous route, the party, after several days’ travel, arrived at the ford of the Clearwater. Two broad channels of the river at this crossing encircled a large island. A mountain torrent at its best, the river was swollen by recent rains, and its current running with frightful velocity. Page, who was perfectly familiar with the ford, dashed in, and was followed by Lowry. They were obliged to swim their mules before reaching the island, and had still a deeper channel to cross beyond. Romaine and Howard, who had witnessed the passage from the bank, were afraid to risk it. A long parley ensued, which finally terminated in the return of Page and Lowry, and an abandonment of the ford. A single day’s rations was all the food the company now possessed. None could be obtained for several days, except at Lewiston, the mention whereof brought their crime before the ruffians with terrible distinctness. But there was no alternative. Risk of detection, while a chance presented for escape, was preferable to physical suffering, from which there was none. They encountered the risk. Near Lewiston they fell in with a rancheman, to whom they committed their animals, with instructions to keep them until their return, and, concealing their faces with mufflers, entered the town at a late hour of the evening. With the design of stealing a boat, and making a night trip down Snake River, to some point accessible to the Portland steamboats, they proceeded at once to the river bank fronting the town. Piling their baggage into the first boat they came to, they pushed out into the stream. The wind was blowing fearfully, and the maddened river rolled a miniature sea. They had proceeded but a few rods when a sudden lurch of the boat satisfied them that the voyage was impracticable, and they returned to shore.