MY SPORTING HOLIDAYS 



prisoned in the teeth of the trap, and he had slowly 

 starved to death. It was surmised that he had in- 

 advertently sprung the trap while occupied in con- 

 cealing it with earth and leaves. 



Soon after, we began to think of returning south- 

 wards. It was towards the end of September, and 

 the weather began to threaten. A three days' snow- 

 storm had kept us in camp, where we spent the first 

 day in building a 'wicky-up,' or Indian hut, with 

 young fir trees and boughs, and the next two days in 

 playing poker therein with our men, who entirely 

 convinced us fortunately, the stakes were low that 

 poker is a game of skill. On the fourth day the 

 weather cleared, and that evening some of our party 

 brought back the news that they had heard much 

 rifle-shooting on the east side of the range. 



We noticed that our guides that night were distinctly 

 uneasy, and something was said about Indians. Next 

 day Jack and I went out to reconnoitre in the direc- 

 tion where the shots had been heard. We found the 

 carcass of a freshly-killed buffalo, also numerous 

 horse-tracks crossing the range from east to west. 

 These Jack pronounced to be those of a party of 

 Indians on the war-path : first, because no party of 

 white men would be travelling in such numbers ; 

 second, because the horses were unshod for these 

 reasons they were Indians ; and, thirdly, having no 

 lodge-poles with them these drag on the ground 

 and leave a trail they must perforce be Indians on 

 the war-path. 



On our return to the railroad some weeks later we 

 found Jack's deductions were correct. A band of 

 red men on the war-path had crossed the range a few 

 miles from our camp fortunately, the recent snow 



