3 Captured Treasure

Far in the night the Panther awoke Smith to take his turn at the watch. But the Panther himself did not go to sleep at once. The great strong borderer, hardened and roughened by many years of wilderness ways and wilderness fighting, had formed a strong affection for Ned. He, too, like Obed White, looked upon him as almost a son, and now came this new and powerful feeling that for some reason the Infinite had made him, unknown to himself, a magic leader. The big man ran over in his mind again the long list of the boy’s escapes from deadly peril, and his belief became cumulative. It was a conviction. He regarded the sleeping figure with a trace of awe, then lay down and slept.

When Smith awoke Karnes to take the third and last watch he told him what the Panther had said about Ned and added:

“I believe it just as much as Panther does. Away up there in New York where I came from I knew lots of Iroquois when I was a boy. They believed that certain warriors was born lucky, and that you couldn’t kill ’em in battle. An’ I tell you, Hank, Indians know a lot. Why shouldn’t they? They’ve had to be smart and quick with ear and eye and hand to live.”

“You never said truer words, Deaf, and the same things happen among white men. Look at old Andy Jackson! Don’t it stand to reason that he was chose? Think of him a little boy born in a poor little old log cabin up there in the hills of Carolina, away back in the Revolution! Before he is ten years old, a British officer slashes him over the head because he won’t black his boots. But the blade turns aside an’ just wounds, it don’t kill.

“Would you pick out that little feller in a cabin in the hills to be such a terrible great man? You wouldn’t an’ I wouldn’t an’ everybody else wouldn’t. But somethin’ greater than any of us has. He lives through things that would kill most boys. As a man he has to fight an’ fight hard, but he always wins an’ he ain’t any bigger an’ stronger than the others. Then he fights the Indians an’ he wins. He fights the British an’ he wins. You wouldn’t think he’d get to New Orleans before the British, but he did an’ whipped ’em, too, an’ they two to one, an’ brave enough, too. It was because he was chose.

“An’ they try to keep him from bein’ President, sayin’ he is a common man from the backwoods. All the fine people, the kind who attack us Texans, ’cause we ain’t willin’ to let the Mexicans kill us, are ag’in him, an’ they do keep him out once, but he goes in the next time an’ he goes in twice. He was certainly chose, an’ I’m with you an’ Panther when you say that Ned is chose, too. No boy could live through what he has unless he was.”

Smith went to sleep beside the coals of what had been the fire, and Karnes watched until dawn which came swift and shot with fire, after the southern fashion. The last mournful howl of the disappointed wolves rose in the forest and with the daylight they fled away.

Ned awoke and sat up. He was not conscious that his character had changed in the course of the night, nor that his comrades regarded him with a new respect. They took pains not to show it, thinking it best that he should not know. He yawned, stretched himself vigorously and leaped lightly to his feet. He was too much inured to border life to take harm through sleeping on the ground, and he felt strength pouring through every vein.

“It was a fine sleep, the best I ever had,” he said. “Is our buffalo all safe?”

“As safe as can be,” replied Karnes. “You can see it hangin’ up there in the tree, just as we put it last night, but some mighty hungry an’ disappointed wolves have been roarin’ ’roun’ these woods all night. They raised a real plaintive song now an’ then, and I guess they went away powerful sad.”

“Which won’t keep us from enjoying a juicy breakfast,” said Smith. Nor did it.

After breakfast, Smith and Karnes went back to the crater for the horses, returning about noon with four and bringing Obed White with them also.

“It was a hard push for the animals through the thickets,” said Obed, “but they made it. And when I heard, Ned, that you’d killed a whole buffalo herd they couldn’t keep me from coming along. Unto him that shoots well the game shall be given.”

They loaded three of the horses with the dressed and dissevered body of the buffalo, and Smith and Karnes departed with them for the camp, leaving behind the Panther, Obed, Ned and one horse. The Panther had an idea that they might find more wild turkeys, as the forest seemed so favorable for them, and, in case they should, the fourth horse could carry the burden.

Ned did not know that Smith and Karnes, before their departure, had held a secret conference with the Panther.

“You keep Ned with you,” Smith had said, “an’ if you find them turkeys which you didn’t find yesterday, when you was separated, then it’s another shore proof of what we already know to be true.”

Smith and Karnes had not been gone a half hour before the others heard a faint gobble. The Panther, Obed and Ned followed the sound cautiously, and they saw the finest collection of fat turkeys that they had ever beheld clustered upon the boughs of a great oak. The three stalked them with such ease that it seemed to the Panther that the turkeys awaited them on purpose. By swift and accurate shooting they brought down six before the rest could fly away.

Ned lifted an immense gobbler, with shining bronze feathers, and he guessed his weight at a full forty pounds. He was the biggest and fattest turkey that he had ever looked upon. But their large and easy triumph confirmed the Panther in a belief which was rather conviction already. Ned was their luck piece, their magic leader.

They carried the turkeys back to camp on the horse, which they had left tethered in the forest, and they received a warm welcome. Williamson, a good shot, had killed a deer within three hundred yards of the crater, and that, too, was added to their supply. Experienced hunters, they knew how to jerk and dry, and the crater was filled with proofs of their skill. They found more deer and turkeys and smaller game could be had almost for the asking. They made crude but effective tackle and caught fine fish in the creek that Ned had seen.

Thus several busy days passed. Ned and Will were happy. They were trusted members of a great band, on terms of full equality with such famous men as the Panther, Smith and Karnes, and the wild life and rude plenty there in the forest made a powerful appeal to both. They knew that rougher and more dangerous times were coming soon, but the present sufficed unto itself, and they took their pleasure.

They strengthened their cabins and spread skins over the bark floors, and they added many other comforts, expecting that the crater would long be their base. But while it was a pleasant time for them it was a most sorrowful one for the wolves which, filled with anger at the savor of the plenty that they could not reach, came nightly to the edge of the crater and howled their sorrows. Mingled with their lamentations rose now and then the cry of a panther, so much like the shriek of a woman.

“Some of you fellers could go out there and take a shot at those singers,” said the Panther one night when the hungry chorus was unusually lively, “but we ain’t got any ammunition to spare. Do you know that we’re comin’ mighty close to our last bullets? If the Mexicans was to stumble on us here, which ain’t likely, we wouldn’t have lead enough to put up a good fight?”

“I’ve been noticin’ it,” said Deaf Smith, “an’ between you an’ me, Panther, we’ve got to get more lead, an’ that mighty soon.”

’“Tain’t fur away,” said the Panther, drooping an eyelid.

“I don’t know of any lead mine in eyeshot of us,” said Smith, also drooping an eyelid.

“Not just at this minute, I reckon, but we can bring one within eyeshot.”

They understood each other perfectly.

“Then we’ll do it.” said Smith. “And while we’re doin’ it I reckon we might as well overhaul a powder factory, too. We need one about as bad as the other.”

“We’ll do that, too, Deaf. Good head, that, on your shoulders.”

“Such as it is it’s the only one I have, Panther.”

They organized an expedition at once. It contained all but Will and two of the men. Will begged to go, but the Panther enlarged upon his responsibilities as a keeper of the camp, and defender of the army’s base, and he became reconciled.

The six who departed went on horseback, as their business would lead them upon the plain, and there men on foot would have little chance. They looked very carefully to their arms and scanty supplies of ammunition, and started at daylight for the plains to the westward. It was rough riding through the dense hilly forest, and noon came before they emerged from it. But the knowledge that the belt was so wide made them feel all the more secure about the camp.

Before riding upon the plain they held a short conference. They knew that all the open country was now held by the troops of Santa Anna, and it was important to learn where the nearest detachment lay.

“This is a foragin’ not a fightin’ expedition,” said Deaf Smith, “an’ we must slip up on the Mexicans, seize what we want an’ get away. This calls for woodcraft and prairie craft and all kinds of craft.”

“You never spoke truer words, Deaf,” said the Panther. “There can’t be no roarin’ an’ rippin’ an’ t’arin’, but just slidin’ an’ slippin’. Now I’ve got to say that about fifteen miles south of here there is, or was, a little settlement called Clay, after the great Henry. It’s located on a hill by the side of two big springs, an’ last year it had about twenty cabins. I don’t know what it’s got now, but if it ain’t been burned likely a lot of Santa Anna’s troops are hangin’ out there.”

“Then we make for it,” said Deaf Smith, “an’ if the Mexicans are there we stay about until dark.”

“The night hides many a deed that would not be done in the day,” said Obed White, sententiously, “but we intend that ours shall be a good one.”

They rode into the open plain, but they kept as far as possible between the swells. Whenever they came to a motte or clump of timber they drew into its shelter, and, for a little while, examined every point of the horizon. They had no glasses, but they had keen and trained eyes. Ned’s wonderful vision here came into valuable play again. He could see even farther than Smith or the Panther. After every successive motte he announced that the prairie was clear and they continued their indirect but steady progress toward the former village of Clay.

Shortly after noon Ned announced that he saw figures on the western horizon.

“They are not much more than a dim blur,” he said, “but I think they are horses.”

“In which case the blurs must be Mexican horsemen,” said Obed White. “Nobody else would be riding here.”

They waited a little longer and then Ned said:

“I was right. They are horses, but there are no horsemen.”

“Horses without riders,” said the Panther, musingly. “They can’t be wild horses. They were all driven far west of here long ago.”

“The meanin’ is plain,” said Deaf Smith. “Them’s the abandoned horses of Texans that had to escape toward the north. It means that the country has been ripped wide open by Santa Anna’s men, when you find work horses wanderin’ about like wild buffalo.”

“True your words are,” said the Panther, “but we’ll just mark where we’ve seen them animals. So far, we are ten men and eight horses, an’ we need more mounts. We may pick up somethin’ else besides powder an’ lead on this foragin’ trip.”

“They’ve got good pasturage over there an’ they won’t go far,” said Karnes. “We’ll look in on that herd on our way back.”

They soon left the horses out of sight and gradually approached Clay. Luckily for them the village had been located on a creek, well lined on both sides with timber which they reached unseen. Keeping well under cover they advanced and were rewarded presently by the sight of a spire of smoke. A mile further on and they saw two or three smaller spires beside the first.

“That settles it,” said the Panther. “Clay is still standin’ an’ of course it’s the Mexicans who are there. I guess they’re havin’ an easy time of it, thinkin’ that no fightin’ Texans are left on the face of the earth.”

When within a half mile of Clay they stopped among the trees along the bank and waited patiently for the dark. Then they moved up within four or five hundred yards of the place, and stopped in the densest clump of trees and bushes they could find. There, they dismounted, and, leaving one man to hold the horses, the others crept toward Clay.

The night favored them, hiding any figure fifty or sixty yards away, and, when they reached the edge of the clearing, they saw that all the houses of the village were still standing. But it was evident that none of the original inhabitants were left. Mexican ponies grazed before the little cabins where the lawns had been. In the square around which the cabins were built a large camp fire was burning. Mexican soldiers were cooking their suppers over the coals and others were lounging near. The watchers reckoned the force at about fifty.

The Mexicans evidently were enjoying themselves. The great and glorious Santa Anna had put his heel upon the Texans and trod them out. They had no more enemies to fight, but they had an abundance of the good things of the earth about them. So, according to their fashion, they dismissed labor and care and rejoiced. The food was cooked and eaten. After that a half dozen took out mandolins and guitars and began to play, while the others lay upon the grass and listened. There was scarcely any order or discipline. They were dreaming of their warm valleys in the south, while the mandolins and guitars tinkled on.

“Things are turnin’ out fine,” whispered the Panther to Deaf Smith. “Didn’t I tell you they’d do so if we had him with us?”

He nodded toward Ned, and Smith nodded back in affirmation.

“Where do you think their guns are?” whispered Ned as he approached the two.

“I can see some in the square,” replied the Panther, “but it’s likely that a lot of them are stacked between the cabins. They are the ones we’ve got to find, an’ the happier them Mexicans get, the finer they think this earth is, the better it is for us. While they’re playin’ their music I hope a lot of ’em get uneasy feet and take to the fandango.”

The hunters had now crept very near to the cabins, but they were still in the darkness. Smoke, the spires of which they had seen from afar, rose from four of these cabins, and Ned surmised that most of the officers were inside, doubtless playing some of the games of cards that Mexicans love. All things were relaxed and easy in the Mexican camp.

Their enemies, victorious through overwhelming numbers, were taking the fruits of life. The music had a lilt and swing that told of far-off pleasant places, deep green grass, the trickle of water, the sound of pleasant human voices, and the lilt of the dance. It proved irresistible to the Mexicans too. Men sprang to their feet, clasped one another by the shoulder, and whirled about with all the fire and grace of the south.

“It’s right fine to look at,” murmured the Panther, grimly, “an’ as I said, it suits our plans. If we can’t do what we want to do now we can’t do it at all.”

“But I think we can do it now,” said Smith, “that is if they keep on with their music an’ dancin’. See that shed there on our left?”

“We see it,” said Ned, speaking for all, “and we see the gleam of metal there, too.”

“An’, as you can see also, that gleam comes from the metal of rifle and musket barrels. They’ve stacked their guns there, an’ where guns are powder an’ bullets are likely to be.”

“You do reason powerful good, Deaf,” said the Panther. “The powder an’ lead are sure to be there an’ they’re our game, the best game that we’ve ever hunted. We’ll just lay quiet here till our time comes.”

They crouched close to the earth and waited. Ned thrilled with the tense situation and the excitement of the moment. The music and dancing grew wilder. The Mexicans began to grow excited. They threw more logs on the fire and the flames leaped and crackled as they ate into the wood. The dancers increased to twenty and then to thirty. They sang also a fiery song of the south that had in it the fierce spirit of old Spain. Some of the officers, leaving their cards, came out of the cabins and watched. It was brighter inside the square, but it was darker beyond it.

“I think now’s our time,” said the Panther. “After all this hullabaloo is over they’ll go to sleep, but they’ll set a guard first. Now they ain’t payin’ attention to anything ’cept the music an’ the dance.”

“Lead on,” said Smith, “we’ll foller.”

“Weak as we are, we do not fear to rush in where the Panther dares to tread,” said Obed.

They slid along, keeping well within the shadow of the cabins, and came to the shed. Then their hearts leaped as they saw the trophies to be won by skill and daring. Fully a hundred rifles and muskets were stacked there, enough for twice the Mexican force in Clay. Ned inferred that they were held for fresh troops who were expected.

Lying between the stacks of arms were several kegs of powder and heaps of lead in bars. Some of the rifles were fine weapons of American make. The Panther looked upon the store with pleasure and then he growled.

“There’s so much of it,” he whispered, “that it makes me mad to think we can’t take it all away with us. We’ll need them rifles for the recruits we expect to get, an’ we need the powder an’ lead still more. I guess we’ll have to leave the rifles this time. Them kegs of powder will weigh ’bout fifty pounds apiece. We’ve got to take three of ’em an’ the other two of us will load up with as much lead as they can carry. Now be awful careful an’ don’t drop anything about that will make a noise.”

The Panther, Ned and Smith took a keg of powder apiece, while the others helped themselves to as much lead as they could carry conveniently. But the Panther and Smith could not resist temptation and each added a fine rifle to his burden. They also took a considerable weight of lead in order to help out the proportion.

Now everything depended upon their reaching the horses unseen, and bearing their burdens lightly, they stole back to the timber along the creek. Ned’s heart was throbbing with excitement, and the pulses in his temples were beating hard. He had hoisted the keg of gunpowder upon his shoulder, where he steadied it with one hand, while he carried his rifle in the other. He was just behind the Panther, whose gigantic frame bore easily the burden of a fifty-pound keg, forty or fifty pounds of lead and an extra rifle.

Ned noted that the music did not decrease. It had the same wild rhythmic swing and the fiery song of the south still swelled. The pulses in his temples did not beat so hard now. They were away from the line of cabins and in another minute they were in the brush. Then the music ceased suddenly and they heard a wild shout.

“They’ve discovered the loss,” exclaimed Smith, “an’ they’re jumpin’ to see what caused it. Now, boys, we’ve got to make the runnin’ good an’ get this stuff on our horses quick. They’ll naturally look in the timber.”

They dashed forward now, careless of noise, and reached the horses. Fastening their spoils on as best they could they leaped into the saddle.

“Up the creek!” cried the Panther. “If we get away we must do it in that direction!”

Ned understood at once. If there was to be a chase they would not lead the Mexicans toward Camp Independence, and reveal its presence. They were galloping now in exactly the opposite direction, and for a little while they made as great speed as the brush would allow. Presently they heard another shout and now it was the combined volume of many voices.

“They’ve hit our trail!” exclaimed Karnes. “Some of them Mexicans are mighty fine scouts an’ trailers, an’ we can’t do much lingerin’, ’specially since Santa Anna has ordered every Texan took to be shot or hanged.”

“But we ain’t goin’ to give up our captured ammunition,” exclaimed the Panther. “We’ve come too far an’ we’ve risked too much for that. I’m ready to do a lot of roarin’ an’ rippin’ an’ t’arin’ before I let go of these things.”

Ned settled his keg of powder in front of him and managed with his belt to tie it securely to his body. He shared the Panther’s spirit. He meant to fight to the last for that powder.

“Easy, boys,” called the Panther. “Better let the horses have their heads. We can’t afford to gallop into a tree or break our necks in a gully, an’ remember, that while we have to slow up for them causes, the Mexicans have to do it, too.”

There could be no doubt now that a large Mexican troop was in pursuit. They could hear the shouts of officers and the beating of hoofs. A moment or two later they saw the flash of torches among the trees, but the enemy was a full four hundred yards behind. The Texans, had they been willing to give up their ammunition, could have escaped easily, but there was not one in the little band who would do so and they kept on at a good pace, staying well within the cover of the trees along the creek bank.

“Of course,” said the Panther, “you fellers understan’ that we can’t let ’em get within range. We’ve got here three kags of powder, an’ powder can go off with a terrible an’ rippin’ bang. The Mexican ain’t any prize winners on the shoot, but if a bullet was to hit in one of these kags where would we be?”

“Go ask of the winds,” said Obed White, “and they’d ask you back again. It’s not a fate that I covet, to be spread over the map of Texas by an explosion of Mexican gunpowder, and I think you can rely upon us all, Panther, to keep well ahead.”

“I guess you’ll try hard enough,” said the Panther, grimly.

They rode good horses, bred to the prairie and forest and as they gave them their heads they avoided all the dangers of collision and pitfall. But they still heard the sounds of pursuit and they knew that the Mexicans would hang on. They also saw the torches yet flaring behind them.

“Deaf,” said the Panther, “do you think you could carry my kag along with your own for a few minutes?”

“Shorely,” replied Smith as he rode alongside and took the keg. The Panther handed the lead to another man, but he kept the extra rifle himself. Then he turned his horse’s head.

“You fellows quicken up your pace a little,” he said, “an’ I’ll shoot out some of their lights.”

Ned understood that he was about to try a daring experiment, and he could not keep from looking back. The Panther drew his horse behind a bush. The Mexicans came on with a thud of hoofs and four torches flaring. Only the men with torches could be visible to an enemy a hundred yards away. The Mexican scouts, keen of ear, could hear the tread of fugitive hoofs, but they did not see the grim figure that had drawn aside and that sat on his horse beside the bush, for all the world like one of those paladins of old who dared to face single-handed a torrent of men. It was the same spirit. The Texan in the wilderness was as brave and generous of soul as the best armor-clad knight of them all.

There was a spiteful crack from the bush. The foremost torch-bearer threw up his arms and rolled backward off his horse. A second crack and the next torch-bearer did the same. The whole Mexican troop reined in with a jerk. Such terrible shooting at night was uncanny. Nor could they tell just where it came from as the scouts yet heard the fugitive hoofs.

While they were still in confusion the Panther galloped swiftly away and overtook his comrades.

“Good work,” said Smith, “we’re a full third of a mile ahead now.”

“And you’ve shown ’em,” said Obed White, “that there’s a flaming sword in the path. He who rides too fast is likely to ride no more.”

“If the timber only holds out,” said the Panther, as he took back his freight, “I’m certain we can shake ’em off.”

“But as I said, the Mexicans have mighty good scouts an’ trailers,” said Deaf Smith, “an’ maybe they have with ’em some of them Campeachy Indians that Ned saw at Goliad. I guess we better keep movin’ right lively.”

They continued in silence for an hour, the horses going at a trot, and at the end of that time, as they heard no further signs of pursuit, they slowed down to a walk. They were all hopeful that the Mexicans had given up the chase, but no one in his heart was sure. But the easier gait, for the time at least, was very welcome. Ned found that his body was chafed considerably by the heavy keg, and the horses, carrying extra burdens, showed signs of weariness. Finally, at the suggestion of Karnes, they dismounted, let the horses drink at the creek, and rested a while.

It was now midnight or past. The darkness had thinned away considerably and a good moon rode among a host of white stars. If an enemy should appear it would not be possible for them to hide, now, as the belt of timber had become much thinner. They had been going up the stream and the creek itself had shrunk to a brook only a few inches deep and three or four feet wide. Ned walked to the crest of a little hill, and, looking far ahead, saw that the timber continued to diminish in such a rapid manner that it must soon cease.

“I think we will have only the open prairie soon,” he said to the Panther.

“Yes, everything shows it, but we can’t yet afford to turn back to our forest. If a single one of that gang was to track us to Camp Independence we’d be ruined. We must keep straight ahead, and then if we are not seen, curve about and come into the woods. I guess we’d better be startin’ ag’in.”

They resumed their flight, both horses and men much refreshed, and as Ned had predicted, soon came to the end of the timber. The creek was now a mere shallow trickle across the prairie, but as the ground was hard they were hopeful they might not leave any trail that could be followed. Just when they were most cheerful, Ned, who was looking back, uttered a cry.

“They are coming!” he said.

He saw a faint moving line on the dusky horizon, and he knew that it was made by the pursuing Mexican horsemen.

“You’ve got to give ’em credit for hangin’ on,” said the Panther. “Some people take the Mexicans too cheap. With all these stars an’ no trees things are in their favor now.”

In half an hour the Mexicans were no longer a mere wavy line. Their individual figures could be seen clearly. The Texans even heard a triumphant shout, brought to them by a stray puff of wind. It was obvious that the pursuit was gaining.

“Do you think we ought to pick out the best place we can an’ turn an’ fight?” said Deaf Smith to the Panther.

The Panther did not reply for a full minute. Ned, who had heard the question, watched his face but he could read little there. It was so covered with a thick bush of black hair that nothing was visible but his eyes. But those eyes finally flashed as if in triumph and the huge man exclaimed:

“I’ve got it! It will need delicate handlin’, but you an’ me can work it, Deaf.”

He and Smith whispered together and Smith nodded his head violently in assent.

“It’s the only thing,” Ned heard him say.

“It will cost us a kag of powder,” said the Panther, “an’ I hate like pisen to give it up, but it’s better to lose one to save the rest.”

He slipped loose his own keg and dropped it gently to the ground, where it lay at the very highest point of a swell.

“Now, you fellers slow up,” said the Panther, “an’ be shore that you don’t change a single p’int from the direction in which we was goin’ when I dropped the kag. Might be as well to let some of them Mexicans think our horses have pulled up lame.”

They rode forward slowly and Ned heard a shout of triumph from the Mexicans who were now only a quarter of a mile away. Smith passed his keg of powder to Karnes.

“Keep three or four hundred yards ahead,” he said. “an’ if we do what we’re undertakin’ to do we’ll rejoin you on the gallop. But it’s a mighty delicate an’ ticklish job, an’ we don’t know yet what’s goin’ to happen.”

Ned looked back all the time, letting his horse have his head. He was quite sure that the Mexicans with their deadly experience of the Panther’s rifle would be wary about coming within range of him and Smith. This was just what happened. When the Mexicans saw the two redoubtable Texan horsemen, considerably in the rear of their own comrades, they also slowed down, approaching warily. Then one of them saw the abandoned powder keg, and, as it was out of the Texan range, they rode toward it in a group, uttering another shout of triumph.

The Panther and Smith instantly turned and rode rapidly back toward the Mexicans, until they were within easy rifle shot. Then they stopped suddenly, raised their rifles and pulled the trigger. So swift and so equal in skill were they that the rifle barrels rose together, and the fingers pressed the triggers at the same time. But they had not drawn bead on the Mexicans. They had sent their bullets with unerring aim at something else.

Ned saw a great flash of fire, like the spouting of a volcano. There was a tremendous roar and the whole prairie seemed to shake. Then a huge cloud of smoke arose. Riderless horses, mad with fear or pain, shot from it, and terrible cries came from its center.

The Panther and Smith swiftly rejoined their comrades.

“Go forward at an easy trot now,” said the Panther. “There ain’t goin’ to be any more pursuit. I reckon, Deaf, that nobody will ever know whether your bullet or mine hit that kag.”

But Ned knew that both bullets had struck the target. They were not men who ever missed in such a crisis. He did not look back again, wishing to avoid a sight that would be revealed when the smoke lifted, but gazed straight ahead. They rode in leisurely fashion for a full two hours, when they turned at a sharp angle and made straight for their forest. Then Ned glanced back for the first time. The prairie was clear and silent.

They made no stop, and, an hour or two after daylight, they reached the big forest. Nor did they stop there, until they were several miles within its deep shade. Then they drew up by the side of a small brook, dismounted, watered their horses, and permitted them to graze on what grass they could find among the bushes. They also drank and ate of cold venison.

“It won’t do to kindle no fire here,” said the Panther. “We must be a full forty miles from Camp Independence, but we don’t want to take no risk whatever. Likely enough we’d better stay here all day ’cause our horses are clean fagged out.”

“I’m willing,” said Ned, with such earnestness that all laughed, including Ned himself. They had been at such high tension that the laugh was a relief. They began now to relax, to stretch their limbs and to get back the easy and natural control of all their faculties.

They felt an immense pride in their exploit and it was justified. They had now a fine store of powder and lead, and, at such a moment, powder and lead were more precious to them than jewels.

“We can spend a lot of good time makin’ bullets when we get back to Camp Independence,” said the Panther. “I hate to have lost that other kag, but it had to go. It wasn’t wasted, either.”

But they had done better than their hopes. They spent nearly the entire day by the brook, alternately sleeping and watching, and late in the afternoon they rode along its muddy bottom for three or four hours. This would surely hide the trail from any possible eye as the hoof-prints could not possibly last in the mud and water. When they came out it was on hard ground and they finished their journey without the least apprehension, arriving about noon of the next day at Camp Independence.

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