ught between the
rangers to the left and the soldiers to the right. Bob could see them
breaking through the willows toward the river. It was an easy guess that
their horses were bunched here and that they would be forced to cross the
stream to escape.

Five minutes later Harshaw broke through the saplings to the pit. "Either
of you boys hurt?" he demanded anxiously.

"Not a scratch on either of us," Dud reported.

The boss of the Slash Lazy D wrung their hands. "By Godfrey! I'm plumb
pleased. Couldn't get it outa my head that they'd got you lads. How's
Houck?"

"He's right sick. Doc had ought to look after him soon. He's had one
mighty bad day of it."

Houck was carried on a blanket to the riverbank, where camp was being
made for the night. The Utes had been routed. It was estimated that ten
or twelve of them had been killed, though the number could not be
verified, as Indians always if possible carry away their dead. For the
present, at least, no further pursuit of them was feasible.

Dr. Tuckerman dressed the wounds of the Brown's Park man and looked after
the others who had been hurt. All told, the whites had lost four killed.
Five were wounded more or less seriously.

The wagons had been left on the mesa three miles away. Houck was taken
here next day on a stretcher made of a blanket tied to willow poles. The
bodies of the dead were also removed.

Two days later the rangers reached Bear Cat. They had left the soldiers
to complete the task of rounding up the Utes and taking them back to the
reservation.

CHAPTER XXXVI

A HERO IS EMBARRASSED

Following the Ute War, as it came to be called, there was a period of
readjustment on the Rio Blanco. The whites had driven off the horses and
the stock of the Indians. Two half-grown boys appropriated a flock of
several thousand sheep belonging to the Indians and took them to Glenwood
Springs. On the way they sold the sheep right and left. The asking price
was a dollar. The selling price was twenty-five cents, a watermelon, a
slice of pie, or a jack-knife with a broken blade.

The difficulties that ensued had to be settled. To get a better
understanding of the situation the Governor of the State and a general of
the United States Army with their staffs visited the White River country.
While in Bear Cat they put up at the hotel.

Mollie did a land-office business, but she had no time to rest day or
night. Passing through the office during the rush of the