te man Jack.' Then
Colorow's boy go Indian village. Sun low--Chiquita come, no find white
man, go back Indian village, mebbe so white man see Colorow?"

Jack, of course, was nervous. Alone in a wild country that was alive
with wild game, ravenous wolves, mountain lions, bears and hostile
Indians, he realized what a novice, a tenderfoot, a fool he was, or
would be, to put his ignorance of frontier life against the cunning of
the old chiefs, but he answered quickly,

[Illustration: YAMANATZ.]

"Me no see Colorow." Then taking courage by the kindly look in
Yamanatz's eyes, Jack said slowly, taking Yamanatz's hands in his own.

"Mebbe so Colorow want to kill white man Jack?"

Yamanatz shrugged his shoulders but made no answer and Jack continued.

"If Colorow meet white man, Colorow got no bullets--got knife--suppose
white man kill Colorow, will Utes kill white man?"

Yamanatz evaded the question but made the reply: "Colorow heap bad
Indian, mebbe so make heap trouble. Utes 'fraid Colorow--big chief
'fraid Colorow. White man mebbe so kill Colorow, no tell what 'em
happen. Old Utes not much care. Antelope, Bennett, Douglas, Washington.
Mebbe so heap mad, kill all white men if white man Jack kill Colorow."

In this honest avowal Jack found little comfort, but Yamanatz's next
words gave him a hope that all might be well.

"Utes got no lead, no powder, no deer meat. Mebbe so Colorow take many
ponies, go Sulphur Springs, get 'em bullets, bacon, flour, then be good
Injun till all gone."

In this logic of plenty to eat lay the safety of the white trappers for
that winter, so Jack prayed fervently for the early departure of the
Indians for Sulphur Springs to the end of his own personal safety. He
knew now that certain sign language the Utes had so often indulged in
represented Agent Meeker in his attempts to teach the Indians how to
plow; that bits of tragic, practical joking were tests of his own
bravery, and that the uneasy red devils but waited opportunity and
excuse for an uprising, after they should obtain the necessary munitions
of war, of which they had none.

Chiquita grew more and more interested in the ways of the pale face with
each visit, and Jack found her waiting for his return oftener, even
following him portions of the route in his attentions to the traps. Her
desire for knowledge seemed to him incomprehensible and old Yamanatz was
equally at a loss to understand why his daughter should prefer to hear
ab