tinuing, "Tho't mebbe so yer were goin' to plunk him fer a minnit
thar."

Bill chimed in: "I seen the f--f--f--fire in yer eyes and says to
myself, it's all over with Cu--cu--col--col--Colorow at last,
b--b--b--but why in h--h--h--hellen d--d--d--didn't yer shoot?"

"Well," said Jack, just the least regretting he had not, "I didn't know
how much of a 'stink' it would raise. The Utes are getting pretty bad,
and the whole parcel of them might take a notion to come up here and
clean out the Park before the soldiers could stop them."

"What d' yer mean?" anxiously asked both his listeners, with a
perceptible blanching of their bronzed faces.

"Old Yamanatz tells me things aren't going just right at the agency.
Colorow and Douglas' band of renegade Utes were camped outside the
reservation, two miles from the cabin where the trapper and I put up.
Didn't the trapper tell you anything?" suddenly asked Jack.

The ranchmen looked curiously at one another, and Tracy evasively
remarked, "Well, he didn't say much; just said he got lonesome and had
left the old woman without any wood an' allowed he'd cut some for her,
then he'd go back byme-by."

"Yes, byme-by," scornfully broke in Jack, adding, with some feeling,
"Between me and the corral that trapper is afraid of the Utes and left
me in the lurch."

Tracy and Bill exchanged glances, as much as to say, "The tenderfoot has
got his eye-teeth cut all right." Bill spoke up as if a sudden impulse
had made him forget the dangers that lurked in the Ute question.

"How about that redskin g--g--gal? Tho't mebbe so y--y--yer hed jined in
holy wedlock into the Ute family," at which both the ranchmen slapped
their hands together and laughed uproariously. Jack joined in with them,
for he appreciated the gossip of ranch life, and no sewing bee ever
furnished better "stamping ground" for wagging tongues than the frontier
masculine brand.

Bill set about getting something to eat, and Jack had a double-barreled
appetite stowed away under his belt. The table, with its marble
oilcloth, real stone china plates, cups, saucers, glass vinegar cruets
and a molasses jug, was soon loaded with a big platter of venison, a
plate of hot biscuits, a pot of coffee, a pitcher of rich cream and a
crock of yellow butter. It was nearly three months since Jack had put
his legs under any kind of a table or seen anything the color of butter
or cream, and it was a treat that could not have been equaled in
Delm