NAT, THE TRAPPER AND INDIAN-FIGHTER. BY PAUL J. PRESCOTT. NEW YORK: BEADLE AND ADAMS, PUBLISHERS, 98 WILLIAM STREET. Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1872, by FRANK STARR & CO., In the office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. CONTENTS I. The Ledge 9 II. A Wild Chase 15 III. The Friend in Need 19 IV. Lost Marion 26 V. The Hole in the Hill 32 VI. A Happy Meeting 41 VII. Holed 49 VIII. The Last Hope 60 IX. Ho-Ho! and Away! 68 X. An Unwelcome Visitor 73 XI. The Last of Earth 78 XII. Conclusion 82 NAT, THE TRAPPER. CHAPTER I. THE LEDGE. Toward noon of a pleasant June day, 18—, a man, mounted on a powerful animal of the mustang breed, was riding slowly over the plain, some distance south-east of the great South Pass. His appearance was striking. In hight he was rather more than six feet, his legs and arms being long and lank in the extreme. His eyes were small, gray and piercing, and remarkably deep-set; his face rather thin and cadaverous, the lower part being covered with a scanty growth of grizzled beard. Add to these not very handsome features a wide, though good-natured looking mouth, and a nose of extraordinary length, and he presented a startling, not to say ludicrous, appearance. He was dressed in a suit of dun-colored deer-skin; and a close-fitting coon-skin cap, from which dangled the tail, covered his head. A long rifle, which evidently had seen considerable service, rested across the saddle-bow, and a large buckhorn-handled knife peeped from the folds of his hunting-shirt. A powder-horn slung at one side, and a small tomahawk stuck in his belt, completed his outfit. Such was the appearance of Nathan Rogers, well known throughout that region as Wild Nat, trapper and Indian-fighter. As he rode slowly along, his eyes bent on the ground, a superficial observer would have pronounced him in a deep reverie; but, from the suspicious glance which he frequently threw about him, it was evident that he was on the look-out for any danger that might be near.