Arikaras only chased him
into the arms of two Mandans; the Mandans took him into Fort
Tilton--and that same night, such was his hurry, he set out alone
again, on foot, for the Yellowstone and the Andrew Henry fort at the
mouth of the Big Horn in Crow and the Blackfoot country.

He did not fear; he believed that nothing could kill him. Nothing had
been able to kill him, yet! Thirty-eight days later, or near the close
of October, Trapper Glass strode to the gate of the Henry fort at the
mouth of the Big Horn, up the Yellowstone.

The sentry stared, agape.

"Who are you?"

"How, yoreself, young feller. Whoopee! Tell 'em hyar's old Hugh
Glass, who war et by a grizzly b'ar an' is slick as a peeled onion; an'
he wants his gun an' fixin's. Whar's the rascals that stole all my
plunder?"

Hugh Glass! A miracle! But he it was.

"We thought you were dead and buried, man!"

"Wall, I ain't, not by a jugful. An' I wants my plunder an' the scalps
o' them two villains."

"They aren't here. They're down at Atkinson."

What? Fort Atkinson was the Council Bluffs, on the lower Missouri one
thousand miles away.

"I'll git 'em yit," vowed old Hugh. "If I'd only have knowed! I
warn't very fur from Atkinson."

In February he started for Atkinson, with four other men. They
traveled across country, through central Wyoming, and struck the
Platte; paddled down the Platte in hide boats that they made--and ran
right into the Arikaras. By night-fall old Hugh found himself again
alone; he had lost all four of his comrades (two had been killed before
his eyes), and most of his new outfit. But, he said:

"I felt quite rich when I found my knife and steel in my shot pouch.
These little fixin's make a man feel right peart when he is three or
four hundred miles away from anybody or anywhere--all alone among the
painters (panthers) and the wild varmints."

In the early spring the buffalo calves are young and senseless. He
easily caught them, cut them up, made a fire and cooked the meat; and
in June he was at Fort Atkinson.

By this time he had forgiven the youngster. He was willing to believe
that the "young feller" wasn't used to trapper ways, and hadn't known
any better. But he still bore a grudge against Fitzgerald.

Fitzgerald was at Atkinson, enlisted in the army. Old Hugh raged and
stormed, but did not dare to touch him. They talked it over; Fitz
explained why he had left the grizzly bear camp--had stayed five