CHAPTER XXX.
COUNTER CURRENTS Woman is like the reed that bends to every breeze, but breaks not in the tempest .-- _Bishop Richard Whately_.
The Oregon immigration for 1845 numbered, according to some accounts, not less than three thousand souls.

Our people still rolled westward in a mighty wave.

The history of that great west-bound movement is well known.

The story of a yet more decisive journey of that same year never has been written--that of Helena von Ritz, from Oregon to the east.

The price of that journey was an empire; its cost--ah, let me not yet speak of that.
Although Meek and I agreed that he should push east at the best possible speed, it was well enough understood that I should give him no more than a day or so start.