And now to assist in the partition of spoils." So saying, he strode away from the rock, and, gliding back down the gulch, climbed over the carcass of the dead horse.

Then, finding his own outside, he mounted and rode off to rejoin his red-skinned comrades engaged in sacking the caravan.
On reaching it a spectacle was presented to his eyes--frightful, though not to him.

For he was a man who had seen similar sights before--one with soul steeped in kindred crime.
The waggons had been drawn partially apart, disclosing the space between.

The smoke had all ascended or drifted off, and clear sunlight once more shone upon the sand--over the ground lately barricaded by the bodies of those who had so bravely defended it.

There were thirteen of them--the party of traders and hunters being in all but fifteen.