The old trapper went out every day to ascertain if the Indians had moved away from the plain below us--should he find the country open, he intended, he said, to go in search of Sandy, and those he might have rescued--but he as often returned with the information that the Indians still occupied the country.  I, of course, greatly hampered him, for he would not leave me in the cavern for long together.  Had he been by himself, he could easily have started at night and made his escape.