n of dust, and send forth to
meet and guide him with his prizes to the colonel's camp. Every
quarter-hour, therefore, was taking him farther and father away from his
corralled comrades down-stream, but he refused to see it. "Oh, they'll
come along all right, Sanders," he declared, as he saw how his
adjutant's eyes constantly gazed back beyond the dispersed line of
skirmishers, "and we'll have a regular jubilee when we meet your colonel
this evening. Some day, perhaps, you'll get a brevet for this."

"Damn the brevet!" groaned the youngster. "Give me a sight of 'C' and
'F' Troops safe and sound, and I'd rather have it than any brevet in
creation." Then a brilliant idea struck him. "By the way, major, suppose
they don't come along, what will you do for breakfast and dinner?
They've got the pack-train--unless the Indians have."

"By heavens, I never thought of the packs. They were way behind when we
struck the village," said the major, whipping out his watch. "It's 6.30
now. Sanders, I reckon you'll have to go back and see what's become of
them. Take six or eight men from the reserves here and try to rejoin us
by eight." And glad enough to slip out from the shadows of that
overhanging pall, Sanders went, half a dozen Arizona "jayhawkers" riding
silently with him.

And that was the last Major Chrome saw of his battalion adjutant, of the
"Eleventh" half of his battalion, and of all but one of the six
jayhawkers referred to, in many a long week. One of the latter made his
way back afoot in the course of half an hour, saying his horse was shot
under him in the valley, which was thick with Indians, and Chrome looked
yellow-white and a trifle undecided. But again the big herd of ponies
from some unseen cause was in rapid motion, loping away southwestward.
All the guards and flankers were on the run, and it was half an hour
before things quieted down again, and when eight o'clock came Canker
sent in word that there were dozens of Indians on the bluffs ahead where
the valley narrowed, and it would be well to halt and round up the herd
right there and wait for Cranston and Truman, and Chrome so ordered.
Presently the dust-cloud began to settle, and by and by, when it floated
slowly to earth again, half a dozen at a time, under cover of their
comrades' carbines, the troopers ventured to the stream to fill their
canteens and souse their grimy heads. There, peacefully grazing again,
were the Indian ponies by the hundreds and their d