ed about. At the first indignant glance
the captain had cried out, "Utes again!" But on looking around he saw
a tell-tale trail left by floury bear paws.

Hence this bear trap.

It was but a strong log pen floored with rough-hewn slabs and fitted
with a ponderous movable lid made of other slabs pinned on stout cross
pieces. But, satisfied with his handiwork, the captain now arose, and,
prying up one end of the lid with a lever, set the trigger and baited
it with a huge piece of bacon. He then piled a great quantity of rock
upon the already heavy lid to further guard against the escape of any
bear so unfortunate as to enter, and shouldering his axe and rifle
walked homewards.

Whatever vengeful visions of captive bears he was indulging in were,
however, wholly dispelled as he drew near the cabin. Before the
door stood the Ute chief accompanied by two squaws. "How!" said the
chieftain, with a conciliatory smile, laying one hand on his breast of
bronze and extending the other as the captain approached.

"How!" returned the captain bluffly, disdaining the hand with a
recollection of sundry petty thefts.

"Has the great captain seen a pappoose about his wigwam?" asked
the chief, nowise abashed, in Spanish--a language which many of the
Southern Utes speak as fluently as their own.

The great captain had expected a request for a biscuit; he, therefore,
was naturally surprised at being asked for a baby. With an effort he
mustered together his Spanish phrases and managed to reply that he had
seen no pappoose.

"Me pappoose lost," said one of the squaws brokenly. And there was so
much distress in her voice that the captain, forgetting instantly all
about the slight depredations of his dusky neighbors, volunteered to
aid them in their search for the missing child.

All that night, for it was by this time nearly dark, the hills flared
with pine torches and resounded with the shrill cries of the squaws,
the whoops of the warriors, the shouts of the captain; but the search
was fruitless.

This adventure drove the bear-trap from its builder's mind, and it
was two days before it occurred to him to go there in quest of captive
bears.

Coming in view of it he immediately saw the lid was down. Hastily he
approached, bent over, and peeped in. And certainly, in the whole of
his adventurous life the captain was never more taken by surprise; for
there, crouched in one corner, was that precious Indian infant.

Yes, true it was,