[Illustration:  The mother bear ran to the dead cub and pawed it with her foot.]

CHAPTER VII.

We found Uncle Kit and his family all well and glad to see us.  It was late in the afternoon when we got there, and we spent the remainder of the day and evening in recounting our summer’s experience for Uncle Kit’s benefit, who was a very interested listener to all that had befallen us since we parted from him in the spring.

While we ate supper, Jim told Uncle Kit of the fight with the Indians in which I killed the old chief and took his scalp and war bonnet, an account which amused Uncle Kit very much, and later in the evening he insisted on my undoing my pack and showing the bonnet to him.

After he had examined it, he said, “Will, I always knew that you would make an Indian fighter since that night when you were not fifteen years old and showed such bravery in showing me the two scalps of the Indians you had killed that morning all by yourself.  But little did I think that you would have the honor of killing a Ute Chief and capturing his war bonnet.  There will be many times when that bonnet will be as much protection to you as a whole regiment of soldiers would be,” and turning to Jim, Carson said, “Bridger, don’t you think my Willie must have been an apt pupil and does me great honor for the instruction I gave him?”

Jim answered, “Yes, Kit, I certainly do, and if you had seen him tested as I have the past summer, you would not need to ask me that question.”

Uncle Kit patted me on the back and told Jim that he did not need to see his boy’s bravery tested, for he always took it for granted that Willie would stand any test.

The next morning, Uncle Kit and Bridger commenced to lay their plans for the winter’s trapping.  I heard Uncle Kit say, “Bridger, we have got to get down to Bent’s Fort right away; here it is in the last days of September, and you know that when the fall of the year comes, them trappers are like a fish out of water, and if we don’t get to the Fort soon, Bent and Roubidoux will fit them out and send them out trapping on their own hooks.”

Jim answered, “That is true, Kit, and the quicker we go the better it will be for us.”

On the fifth day after we arrived at Taos from California, we were on the road to Bent’s Fort with twenty-two pack horses besides our saddle horses.  Uncle Kit, my old comrade Jonnie West and a Mexican boy by the name of Juan accompanied us.

We reached Bent’s Fort in safety without having any trouble on the way.  The evening we got to the Fort it seemed to me that there were more trappers than I had ever seen together at one time before, and they all huddled around Carson and Bridger.  Uncle Kit told them all that he would talk business with them in the morning.  When supper was ready that evening, Col.  Bent invited all of us to take supper with him.  We accepted the invitation, and while we were at the table, a runner came with a note to Uncle Kit from Capt.  McKee, asking Carson to send all the men he could muster to join him at Rocky Ford to escort a government train to Santa Fe, New Mexico.