ons could not resist.
They sent a volley from their rifles among the thieves, which threw them
into such a panic that they dashed off at full speed without giving
the least thought to their valuable property. The latter as a matter
of course was taken charge of by the trappers, who were glad of the
opportunity to chastise the cowardly marauders.

Under the circumstances, however, the animals were of little value
to the hunters, who had all they needed. It was beyond their power to
return them to their owners, but the best were selected, several of the
plumpest killed and cured, and the rest turned loose to go whither they
chose.

The trappers continued up the Gila until near the copper mines of New
Mexico, where they found a party of white men trading with the Indians.
The peltries were cached and placed in charge of their friends, while
Carson and his companions continued on until they reached Santa Fe.
There their employer bought a license to trade with the Indians who
lived near the copper mines. Then they went back and procuring their
furs, returned once more to Santa Fe, where they were sold for more than
twenty thousand dollars. This being equitably divided among the hunters,
furnished each a goodly sum. Like so many sailors just ashore from a
long voyage, most of the trappers went on a prolonged carousal, which
caused their money to melt like snow in the sun. When their pockets were
empty, they had aching heads, weak frames and only the memory of their
feverish pleasures.

Kit Carson did not go through this trial unscathed. He drank and spreed
with the rest, but he awoke to the folly and madness of his course
sooner than they and the sad lesson learned at the time lasted him
through life. The baneful habit was not fastened upon him, and he not
only acquired the mastery over self, but was able more than once to
save others from falling into the whirlpool which has swept unnumbered
multitudes to wretchedness and death.

Carson found little in the way of congenial employment until the fall of
the year, when he joined a second trapping expedition. The first had won
him such a reputation for sagacity, daring and skill, that his services
were always in demand, and those who were forming such enterprises
sought him out among the very first.

The new party was in charge of an experienced mountaineer, who told
Kit his intention was to trap along the principal streams of the Rocky
Mountains. He was well acquainted wi