“I don’t know about that. That bear didn’t look as if he was dead, but he was. Now, suppose I had blown him all to pieces, and couldn’t find as much as a nail or a tooth left, I guess he would be deader then than he was when he just had my knife in between his ribs. Where did you say this fellow came from?”
“What fellow?”
“Why this man that you were with—this fellow Jean.”
“Pain Court.”
“Is that where you belong?”
“Yes.”
“Ever heard o’ Kit Carson?”
“I have that!” said Reuben eagerly. “I know him. I have seen him.”
“How long ago?”
“He was there early in the summer not long before we left. Indeed, he wanted us to go with him.”