By the time he struck the river, the moon had dropped below some of the higher mountains of the Absaroka Range. He decided to stop there by the river for the night and take the narrow trail to his cabin in the morning. He figured Rascal would appreciate it, and he thought they could both use a little sleep, so he unloaded his horses and made camp. Up with the sun the next morning, he loaded his horses again and crossed over the river to the east side, since it was easier to cross there instead of farther upstream. The trail up to his cabin was on that side of the river, anyway, and by the time he would reach that point, the river would be a lot more difficult to cross. Once across, he set off up the river trail, which soon became a narrow, rocky path the closer he got to the point where the rushing waterway left the mountains. Spruce, fir, and lodgepole pines came right down to the crystal-clear water, making the trail even more of a challenge. He continued on until reaching a large pie-shaped rock on the eastern bank. He had to give Rascal no more than a gentle nudge and the big buckskin dutifully started up the little creek rushing beneath the rock to empty into the river. A steep climb of almost three hundred yards brought him to his cabin.

As he always did, when he had been away for any length of time, he stopped a short distance from the log structure built underneath the overhang of the thickly wooded ridge above it. From where he sat, he could see no sign of anything having changed since he had left it. There were no horses in the small clearing in front of the cabin, and he could see his padlock still on the door. There was always the chance that someone might have stumbled onto his cabin, but it was not likely. The narrow stream that flowed under the rock by the river was not likely to be taken as a path. Even if they did explore it, they would have to travel three hundred yards to reach his camp. Consequently, he had never found anyone in his cabin upon returning after an extended absence. The cabin’s location was an oft-repeated complaint by Lieutenant Mathew Conner on the few occasions when he had attempted to find it, even with explicit instructions from Hawk.