mself in a few disjointed
sentences, but to Jack they were most welcome in their honesty of
purpose and implication of the trapper as a coward.

"I reckon yer might be calkerlatin' on what yer would do with this yere
plunder," said Joe, as he pointed at the camp outfit, the provisions and
the furs hanging on the side of the cabin. Continuing in that monotonous
sing-song of gutturals and whispers, he allowed the plunder belonged to
Jack, for the trapper had acknowledged as much.

"That trapper got 'skeered' of Colorow and lit out. Mebbe yer don't know
it, but the Utes don't like him any too much, and when Colorow said
'Vamoose' yer pardner left yer to yer own cogitashuns. He tol' me that
nothin' in the camp belonged to him; thet 'twas all your'n except the
traps and harness. 'Taint likely he'll come back 'til next March, so ef
yer don't want ter stay 'til then yer'll have to git a move on yerself.
Thet trail won't stay open an hour on the high divide, but yer can
rastle a couple Ute cayuses through ten feet of snow like a hot bullet
goin' through a piece of ham fat, and onct on the other side of the
divide it will be an easy trail to Kremling's, at the mouth of the Big
Muddy. Yer don't need ter take much along. Yer will be out but one
night, and mebbe yer will git ter the old hunter's cabin about forty
mile from here 'fore that. Ef yer don't ther is a good campin' ground on
the crik in a big pocket five miles this side."

It did not take long to make a trade. Jack reserved his six-shooters,
blankets and three or four fine cat and fox skins. Joe gave him a good
Indian pony, a silver watch, and the balance in money for the
provisions, rifle, ammunition and other paraphernalia, except the
remaining furs, traps and cooking utensils, which were the legitimate
belongings of the trapper.

But the awful perils of a trip over an unknown trail in midwinter rose
up as a barrier between Jack and civilization. The night had come on and
Yamanatz, with Chiquita, as silent witnesses to the exchange of
chattels, sat beside the camp fire. Grotesque shadows wavered and
wandered back and forth in and out of the gloom as Jack replenished the
disappearing embers with new fuel preparatory to a pow-wow in which the
final arrangements were to be completed concerning his escape from Rock
Creek, his return later when the winter passed, when Yamanatz should
conduct him to the great gold deposit. It was a matter of a hundred
miles to the nearest