THE OVERLANDERS 55

and Dakota, but Alexander Dallas, governor of
Rupert’s Land for the Hudson’s Bay Company,
and Mgr Taché, bishop of St Boniface, were

aboard, and their presence afforded protec- .

tion. On the way to the vessel some of the
Overlanders had narrowly escaped a massacre.
The story is told that as they slowly made
their way in ox-carts up the river-bank, a
band of horsemen swept over the horizon, and
the travellers found themselves surrounded by
Sioux warriors. The old plainsman who acted
as guide bethought him of a ruse: he hoisted a
flag of the Hudson’s Bay Company and waved
it in the face of the Sioux without speaking.
The painted warriors drew together and con-
ferred. The oxen stood complacently chew-
ing the cud. Indians never molested British
fur-traders. Presently the raiders went off
over the horizon as swiftly as they had come,
and the gold-seekers drove on, little realizing
the fate from which they had been delivered.

There had been heavy rains that spring on
the prairie, and trees came jouncing down the
muddy flood of the Red River. The little
International, like a panicky bicycle rider,
steered straight for every tree, and hit one
with such impact that her smokestack came
toppling down. At another place she pushed