ave risen from the very ground,
thundered down upon them. Carson and his men had overtaken the thieves
and they now swept down upon them with resistless fury. The fight was
as short as it was fierce. The red men fell on the right and left, and
those who escaped the wrath of the trappers, scattered and ran as if
a hundred bomb shells were exploding around them. Every horse stolen
(except the six killed for the feast) were recovered and Carson took
them back to camp without the loss of a man.

The hunters stayed until early autumn, when their employer decided to go
to New Mexico. The journey led for a great portion of the way through a
country over which they had travelled, and which therefore was familiar
to them. After halting a brief while at the Mission of San Fernando,
they arrived at Los Angeles, which like the rest of the country as the
reader knows, belonged to Mexico. As it was apparent that the horsemen
were hunters and trappers, the authorities demanded their written
license to pursue their calling in Mexican territory. Such was the law
and the officials were warranted in making the demand, but it need not
be said that the party were compelled to admit they had nothing of the
kind in their possession.

The authorities thereupon determined to arrest the hunters, but knowing
their desperate nature, hesitated as to the safe means of doing so. They
finally hit upon a rather ingenious, though unfair means of disarming
the white men: they began giving them "fire water" to drink, refusing
to accept pay therefor. Those who lead lives of hardship and peril are
generally fond of such indulgence, and, though the trappers could not
fail to understand the purpose of the Mexicans, and though they knew the
disastrous consequences of giving away to temptation, they yielded and
took in their mouths the enemy which stole away their brains.

The employer became alarmed and saw that something must be done at once
or everything would be lost. Carson had been too wise to fall into the
snare, and he turned to him.

"Take three of the soberest men," said he, "and the loose animals and
camp equipage and push out of the place. I will join you as soon as I
can, but you mustn't linger for me. If I fail to join you, hasten to
New Mexico and make known that I and the rest of my men have been
massacred."

These instructions were definite and they showed the gravity of the
situation. Carson did as directed, while the employer gave his at