BALDY BICKNELL was a hunter and trapper who, at the time we bring him
to the notice of the reader, had spent something over ten years among
the mountains and prairies of the West.

He was a brave, skillful hunter, who had been engaged in many
desperate affrays with the red-skins, and who, in addition to the loss
of the hair upon the crown of his head, bore many other mementos on
his person of the wild and dangerous life that he had led.

Like most of his class, he was a restless being, constantly flitting
back and forth between the frontier towns and the western wilds. He
never went further east than St. Louis, while his wanderings, on more
than one occasion, had led him beyond the Rocky Mountains.

One autumn he reached the Yellowstone, near the head of navigation,
just as a small trading propeller was descending the stream. As much
from the novelty of the thing, as anything else, he rode on board,
with his horse, with the intention of completing his journey east by
water.

On board the steamer he first met Ethan Hopkins and Mickey McSquizzle,
who had spent ten years in California, in a vain hunt for gold, and
were now returning to their homes, thoroughly disgusted with the
country, its inhabitants and mineral resources.

Baldy was attracted to them by their peculiarities of manner; but it
is not probable that anything further would have resulted from this
accidental meeting, but for a most startling and unforeseen
occurrence.