After this, they hunted up a grazing place for their animals, which
were turned loose.

They soon found that the trapper had not deceived them. There was an
unusually rich deposit of gold in one portion of the ravine, and the
men fell to work with a will, conscious that they would reap a rich
reward for their labor.

The name, Wolf Ravine, had been given to it by the trapper, because on
his first discovery of it he had shot a large mountain wolf, that was
clambering up the side; but none others were seen afterward.

But there was one serious drawback to this brilliant prospect of
wealth. Indians of the most treacherous and implacable kind were all
around them, and were by no means disposed to-let them alone.

On the second day after their labor, a horde of them came screeching
down upon them; and had it not been for the safe retreat, which the
trapper's foresight had secured, all three would have been massacred.

As it was, they had a severe fight, and were penned up for the better
part of two days, by which time they had slain too many of their
enemies that the remaining ones were glad to withdraw.

But when the trapper stole out on a visit to his horses he found that
every one had been completely riddled by balls. The treacherous dogs
had taken every means of revenge at hand.

'Skin me fur a skunk, but we've stood this long as we ought to!'