he colonel,
offers you and me a thousand dollars apiece to save _him_. I leave
to day--Thursday--for the pass, and you must follow the minute your
eyes see this. I will be on the lookout for you. Remember there
isn't an hour to spare.

"Dick Morris."

Colonel Chadmund was the commandant at Fort Havens, whither he was
hastening with his news from the Indian country. His family dwelt in
Santa Fe, and his only child, a bright boy, about a dozen years of age,
had been permitted to start to join his father in accordance with a
promise made him a long time before. The escort with which he had been
provided would have been ample under ordinary circumstances, and in
fact, was larger than was generally customary; but it was not
sufficient.

Dick Morris held a position then known as "hunter to the fort" at the
post under the command of Colonel Chadmund. It was similar to that which
the renowned Kit Carson filled for a number of years in the old days at
Bent's Fort. The man was selected on account of his skill in the use of
the rifle, and his knowledge of the habits of the game, his duty being
simply to supply the command with all the fresh food possible--a
position which, it will at once be understood, was no sinecure,
involving constant activity and many long, rapid journeys.

Dick was as skillful and shrewd a man as could be found in the whole
Southwest. Tom Hardynge, his friend and companion in many a perilous
adventure, understood what it all meant the instant he had finished
reading the writing upon the buffalo skin. By some means--probably
through the Indian runners encountered while hunting his game--he had
learned the particulars of the expedition that had been arranged to
attack and massacre the escort. Very probably these swarthy wretches
were mainly incited to the deed by the knowledge that the son of Colonel
Chadmund was to be with the party. It was under the direction of this
vigilant officer that the marauding Indians of the border had received
such a number of severe blows. They were excited to the highest point of
exasperation, and would seize upon any means of revenge at their
command.

Alarmed by the danger which threatened his beloved child, the colonel
had sent Dick Morris to the rescue at once. He would have sent a hundred
men from his fort, had he believed it possible that they could do any
good, but it was clearly out of the question for them to reach Devil's
Pass until nearl