When it is added that among those who were left behind by the Mexicans, were the wife of the man and the father and mother of the boy, their pitiful situation must touch the hearts of all.

They were overcome with grief, and Carson was so stirred that he volunteered to go back with the couple and help rescue their friends if alive, or punish the Indians, if it should prove that they had been massacred.
Richard Godey, a mountaineer almost the equal with Carson, willingly agreed to accompany him.

The two were perfectly familiar with the country, which was an immense advantage.

When the Mexicans described the spring, a long ways distant, where they had abandoned the horses to hunt for their friends, Carson recalled its exact location.

It was about thirty miles away and he said that that was the point toward which they must push with all speed.
Accordingly they turned the heads of their horses thither and struck into a sweeping gallop, resting only when compelled to do so, and reaching the spring at daylight the next morning.