se in order to examine the traps, knowing Colorow
would ultimately appear.

The sun had reached the meridian when she noted the Indian standing
under a big tree watching intently something not far distant from him.
Pretty soon she saw a thin spiral of white smoke gradually becoming more
dense as if from burning damp wood, and occasionally she could hear the
crackle of the flames. She knew Jack was busy getting a little lunch.
She scented the bacon as he toasted it before the fire and again she
felt that ravenous gnawing which now was doubly aggravating.

The cooking evidently made Colorow furious, for he vanished into some
brush and made noises as of a wolf growling with hunger just as he
prepares to tear at a bone. Then the Indian disappeared down the ever
handy gulch to watch Jack in his effort to find the wolf.

Jack proceeded to investigate, and, with gun ready, he entered the
brush, but there were so many signs of wolf tracks, fresh ones, too,
that he was at a loss to understand where they could so suddenly have
disappeared.

As he slowly returned to his lunch camp--a spot free from snow in a
little pine grove where the sun shone bright and warm--he passed very
near where Chiquita was hiding, and then discovered a moccasin track,
which he examined critically. He knew the track had been made since
sunrise, but could not tell whether before or after he started to make
his little camp fire. He carefully set his big boot alongside the
footprint, making a deep impression in the earth. He also deposited the
end of one of his rifle bullets in the moccasin track, feeling sure that
the owner of the moccasin was sure to discover the significance thereof.
Colorow saw the action from his hiding place, but well knew that a
hunting knife was of little avail against a fearless man protected by a
rifle, six-shooter and belt full of ammunition.

Jack looked at the sun, then at Rock Creek a long way off, and sat down
to smoke a pipeful of tobacco. The pleasing, soothing narcotic made him
drowsy and he fell asleep.

Colorow made a circle around the camp and in doing so discovered the
trail which Jack had made on previous trips from the little grove. This
led toward a big gulch which was divided at the lower portion by a steep
ridge. Colorow took the one showing the most usage and ambushed himself
in a thicket close to Pony Creek, at a point convenient to a spot where
Jack would be obliged to pass within leap of the hidden foe.