"The doin's of them Mormon fools can't be beat by Spaniards, stranger. Their mummums and thummums you speak of won't shine whar Injuns are about; nor pint out a trail, whar nothin' crossed but rattler-snakes since fust it snowed on old Pike's Peak. If they pack along them _profits_, as you tell of, who can make it rain hump-ribs and marrow-guts when the crowd gets out of the buffler range, they are some, now, that's a fact. But this child don't believe it. I'd laugh to get a sight on these darned Mormonites, I would. They're no account, I guess; and it's the meanest kind of action to haul their women critters and their young'uns to sech a starving country as the Californys." "They are not all Mormons in the crowd," said the strange hunter; "and there's one family amongst them with some smartish boys and girls, I tell you. Their name's Brand." La Bonté looked up from the lock of his rifle, which he was cleaning--but either didn't hear, or, hearing, didn't heed, for he continued his work. "And they are going to part company," continued the stranger, "and put out alone for Platte and the South Pass." "They'll lose their hair, I'm thinking," said Killbuck, "if the Rapahos are out thar." "I hope not," continued the other, "for there's a girl amongst them worth more than that." "Poor beaver!" said La Bonté, looking up from his work. "I'd hate to see any white gal in the hands of Injuns, and of Rapahos worse than all. Where does she come from, stranger?" "Down below St. Louis, from Tennessee, I've heard them say." "Tennessee," cried La Bonté,--"hurrah for the old state! What's her name, stran----" At this moment Killbuck's old mule pricked her ears and snuffed the air, which action catching La Bonté's eye, he rose abruptly, without waiting a reply to his question, and exclaimed, "The old mule smells Injuns, or I'm a Spaniard!" The hunter did the old mule justice, and she well maintained her reputation as the best guard in the mountains; for in two minutes an Indian stalked into the camp, dressed in a cloth capote, and in odds and ends of civilized attire. "Rapaho," cried Killbuck, as soon as he saw him; and the Indian catching the word, struck his hand upon his breast, and exclaimed, in broken Spanish and English mixed, "Si, si, me Arapaho, white man amigo. Come to camp--eat heap came--me amigo white man. Come from Pueblo-- hunt cibola--me gun break--no puedo matar nada: mucha hambre (very hungry)--heap eat."