ounced his
intention of going to Hot Sulphur Springs.

"I left the old woman without enough wood and must go back to cut some
for her. Then there are some other matters to attend to which will take
a week or ten days, after which I will come back and bring what mail is
at the Springs for you," he explained.

Little did Jack realize, in fact, he did not suspect, there might be
other reasons for this sudden determination on the part of the trapper.
It did not occur to him the seeming folly of a man leaving his wife
unprovided with wood. The trip of a hundred miles or more in the dead of
winter over unbroken trails was not so much of an obstacle for a man
experienced in mountain life; but he did not then know that the Utes'
camp was made up of some of the worst characters from the White River
Agency, nor that the band was there against the wishes of Indian Agent
Meeker, who had requested their return more than once.

Jack took the matter as one of the peculiar incidents in a trapper's
life, for he had learned that a trapper has no conception of time, no
thought for the days ahead, no particular object in view beyond
existence, and no ambition beyond that of the prospector who indulges
his fancies of "striking it rich" some day.

Jack knew there were plenty of provisions to last until summer, that the
trapper would leave two horses and the sled, besides quite a valuable
lot of traps, et cetera, which would insure his return sooner or later,
so there were no misgivings when the mountaineer mounted his horse and
rode away.

He busied himself day after day and accumulated furs and knowledge of
frontier life.

These were the surroundings in which Jack found himself three months
after leaving Boston.

CHAPTER III.

CATS, TRAPS, AND INDIANS.

The steady life of a trapper had become regular diet to Jack, as day
after day he visited old traps, set out new ones and explored territory
farther away from the cabin. The Indians were daily visitors whether he
was in camp or not, but they never molested anything, no matter how
curious or hungry. They were seemingly good humored, even though there
appeared an undercurrent of dissatisfaction. The first episode to put
him on his guard was when one of the Utes, Bennett, hid behind a tree
near the camp fire outside the cabin. Yamanatz was there in his
customary place, squatted upon the ground. A strange dog ran in and out
of the place and Jack inquired of the old Ute how th