This winter cabin was a substantial log affair, run up by the two men with some degree of trouble and with an eye to comfort. Built in a hollow on the mountain face, it hung perched as an eyrie over a ravine some thousands of feet in depth, in such wise that its occupants could command every approach, and descry the advent of strangers, friendly or equivocal, long before the latter could reach them. Behind rose the jagged, almost precipitous mountain in a serrated ridge, and inaccessible from the other side; so that upon the whole the position was about as safe as any position could be in that insecure region, where every man took his rifle to bed with him, and slept with one eye open even then. The cabin was reared almost against the great trunk of a stately pine, whose spreading boughs contributed in no slight degree to its shelter. Not many yards distant stood another log-hut, similar in design and dimensions; this had been the habitation of a French Canadian and his two Sioux squaws, but now stood deserted by its former owners. Vipan flung himself on a soft thick bearskin, took a glowing stick from the fire, and pressed it against the bowl of a long Indian pipe. "By Jove, Bill," he said, blowing out a great cloud. "If this isn't the true philosophy of life it's first cousin to it. A tight, snug shanty, the wind roaring like a legion of devils outside, a blazing fire, abundance of rations and tobacco, any amount of good furs, and--no bother in the world. Nothing to worry our soul-cases about until it becomes time to go in and trade our pelts, which, thank Heaven, won't be for two or three months." "That's so," was the answer. "But--don't you feel it kinder dull like? A chap like you, who's knocked about the world. Seems to me a few months of a log cabin located away in the mountains, Can't make it out at all." And the scout broke off with a puzzled shake of the head. "Look here, you unbelieving Jew," said the other, with a laugh. "Even now you can't get rid of the notion that I've left my country for my country's good. Take my word for it, you're wrong. There isn't a corner of the habitable globe I couldn't tumble up in every bit as safely as here." "I know that, old pard. Not that I'd care the tail of a yaller dog if it was t'other way about. We've hunted, and trapped, and `stood off' the reds, quite years enough to know each other. And now I take it, when we've lit upon a barrelful of this gold stuff, you'll be cantering off to Europe again by the first steamboat." "No, I think not. Except--" and a curious look came into Vipan's face. "Well, I don't know. I've an old score to pay off. I want to be even with a certain person or two."