prospectors, cattlemen, lumbermen. The summer season was not long enough
to grow grain, and the nights too frosty for corn; otherwise Middle Park
would have increased rapidly in population.

In the years that succeeded the departure of the Utes Bill Belllounds
developed several cattle-ranches and acquired others. White Slides Ranch
lay some twenty-odd miles from Middle Park, being a winding arm of the
main valley land. Its development was a matter of later years, and
Belllounds lived there because the country was wilder. The rancher, as
he advanced in years, seemed to want to keep the loneliness that had
been his in earlier days. At the time of the return of his son to White
Slides Belllounds was rich in cattle and land, but he avowed frankly
that he had not saved any money, and probably never would. His hand was
always open to every man and he never remembered an obligation. He
trusted every one. A proud boast of his was that neither white man nor
red man had ever betrayed his trust. His cowboys took advantage of him,
his neighbors imposed upon him, but none were there who did not make
good their debts of service or stock. Belllounds was one of the great
pioneers of the frontier days to whom the West owed its settlement; and
he was finer than most, because he proved that the Indians, if not
robbed or driven, would respond to friendliness.

* * * * *

Belllounds was not seen at his customary tasks on the day he expected
his son. He walked in the fields and around the corrals; he often paced
up and down the porch, scanning the horizon below, where the road from
Kremmling showed white down the valley; and part of the time he
stayed indoors.