After the great battle with the Blackfeet, as related in the last chapter of the story, Kit Carson joined a body of trappers at the summer rendezvous. Later he joined a trading party going into the country of the Navajos, a highly intelligent tribe who cultivated the arts and were quite rich. After a profitable venture among these people he became the hunter, or meat provider for the fort on the Platte River. But he preferred trapping, it would seem; and after some smaller ventures joined a large party and once more ventured into the Blackfoot country. In the winter traces of Indians were seen near their camp; knowing that the savages must be in large force to venture so near to them, Kit Carson proposed that the whites strike the first blow, and so plant terror in the hearts of the Blackfeet. Forty trappers took the trail; Kit was given the command. A band of savages were encountered and attacked. They fled, falling back upon a still larger band. A desperate battle followed, fought from behind trees and rocks, and as night fell, the Blackfeet, with many of their braves dead or disabled, retired across a frozen stream to an island in its middle, where they had erected a log fort. Under the cover of the darkness, however, the Indians left even this and hurried away. Returning to camp a council was held. The trappers were sure the savages would return in great numbers, and they began to prepare for them. Intrenchments were prepared; trees, brush, stumps, fallen logs and boulders were cleared away from the camp upon every side. If the savages advanced, they must do so in the open. At daybreak one morning the Indians came, a thousand or more in number, and advanced to crush the whites for good and all. But at the verge of the cleared space they halted, astonished. They could not advance without exposing themselves to the deadly fire of the long rifles; to take the fort meant an awful sacrifice. A council was held in which there was much speech-making. Then the host broke into two bands and moved away over the mountains; and after this that particular body of trappers were troubled no more.