chunk: Meanwhile, Edward O’Neil, who has since left Mississippi to the Colorado mountains to escape his heartbreak over Clara Blackadder, travels as a fur trapper with his experienced, older companion, ‘Lije Orton. The two trappers overhear Yellow Chief’s attack of the corralled emigrants and decide to receive help from the mountain men of Fort Saint Vrain. O’Neil sees that Clara is of those imprisoned and becomes determined to save her.