He was still speculating as to what this might mean when he heard the clatter of horse's hoofs, and saw a mounted man riding towards him.

As he approached, he recognized him as a Mormon named Cowper, to whom he had rendered services at different times.

He therefore accosted him when he got up to him, with the object of finding out what Lucy Ferrier's fate had been.
"I am Jefferson Hope," he said.

"You remember me." The Mormon looked at him with undisguised astonishment--indeed, it was difficult to recognize in this tattered, unkempt wanderer, with ghastly white face and fierce, wild eyes, the spruce young hunter of former days.

Having, however, at last, satisfied himself as to his identity, the man's surprise changed to consternation.
"You are mad to come here," he cried.