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Banion allowed the main caravan two days' start before he moved beyond

Fort Laramie Every reason bade him to cut entirely apart from that

portion of the coe of the country on ahead, read all he could find, studied such

maps as then existed, and kept an open ear for advice of old-tiet across a country

Two things troubled hirass exhaustion near the

trail and the menace of the Indians Squaw men in fro on the Sater, and sure to

war; that the Bannacks

were east of the Pass; that even the Croere far down below their

nore and certain to harass the trains These stories, not

counting the hostility of the Sioux and Cheyennes of the Platte country,

made it appear that there was a tacit suspense of intertribal hostility,

and a general and joint uprising against thewhites

These facts Banion did not hesitate to make plain to all his men; but,

descendants of pioneers, with blood of the wilderness in their veins,

and each te and

loud at the thought of danger from all the Indians of the Rockies Had

they not beaten the Sioux? Could they not in turn humble the pride of