n the Indian
tongue.

"I have," answered Hawkswing. "Many moons have passed since I was in
this spot. My nation was strong then. It is weak now. Few braves are
left. We sometimes carried our furs to that fort to trade with the
pale-faces. It is called the Mountain Fort. The chief of the
pale-faces was a bad man then. He loved fire-water too much. If he is
there still, I do not wonder that there is war between him and the
red-men."

"That's bad," said Bounce, shaking his head slowly--"very bad; for the
redskins 'll kill us if they can on account o' them rascally
fur-traders. Howsomdiver we can't mend it, so we must bear it."

As Bounce uttered this consolatory remark, the party cantered up to the
open space in front of the gate of the fort, just above which a man was
seen leaning quietly over the wooden walls of the place with a gun
resting on his arm.

"Hallo!" shouted this individual when they came within hail.

"Hallo!" responded Bounce.

"Friends or foes, and where from?" inquired the laconic guardian of the
fort.

"Friends," replied Redhand riding forward, "we come from the
Yellowstone. Have lost some of our property, but got some of it back,
and want to trade furs with you."

To this the sentinel made no reply, but, looking straight at Big Waller,
inquired abruptly, "Are you the Wild Man?"

"Wot wild man?" said Waller gruffly.

"Why, the Wild Man o' the West?"

"No, I hain't," said Waller still more gruffly, for he did not feel
flattered by the question.

"Have you seen him?"

"No I hain't, an' guess I shouldn't know him if I had."

"Why do you ask?" inquired March Marston, whose curiosity had been
roused by these unexpected questions.

"'Cause I want to know," replied the man quitting his post and
disappearing. In a few minutes he opened the gate, and the trappers
trotted into the square of the fort.

The Mountain Fort, in which they now dismounted, was one of those little
wooden erections in which the hardy pioneers of the fur trade were wont
in days of old to establish themselves in the very heart of the Indian
country. Such forts may still be seen in precisely similar
circumstances, and built in the same manner, at the present day, in the
Hudson's Bay territories; with this difference that the Indians, having
had long experience of the good intentions and the kindness of the
pale-faces, no longer regard them with suspicion. The walls were made
of strong tall palisades, with