The country was an unbroken wilderness.

Mr.
Winters's nearest neighbors were bands of roving freebooters, who robbed all who came in their way.

They did not, however, content themselves with waylaying solitary travelers.

They frequently made organized attacks upon remote farm-houses, and one night they made a sudden descent upon Mr.Winters's rancho.

But the old frontiersman had lived too long in that country, and was too well acquainted with the character of his neighbors, to be caught napping.