fearless
rider, although only fourteen. King is very handsome now and his gait
delightful, but he still requires most careful management. He ran away
with me the other day, starting with those three tremendous strides,
but we were out on a level and straight road, so nothing went wrong. All
there was for me to do was to keep my seat. Lieutenant Perkins and Miss
Campbell were a mile or more ahead of us, and after he had passed them
he came down to a trot, evidently flattering himself that he had won a
race, and that nothing further was expected of him.

He jumps the cavalry hurdles beautifully--goes over like a deer, Hal
always following directly back of him. Whatever a horse does that dog
wants to do also. Last spring, when we came up from Camp Supply, he
actually tried to eat the corn that dropped from King's mouth as he
was getting his supper one night in camp. He has scarcely noticed
Powder-Face since the very day King was sent to me, but became devoted
to the new horse at once. I wonder if he could have seen that the new
horse was the faster of the two!

FORT LYON, COLORADO TERRITORY, May, 1874.

THERE is such good news to send you to-day I can hardly write it fast
enough. The Territorial Court has been in session, and yesterday
that horse thief, Billy Oliver, was tried and sentenced to ten years'
imprisonment in the penitentiary! The sheriff and a posse started for
Canon City this morning with him and another prisoner, and I hope that
he will not make his escape on the way over. The sheriff told Faye
confidentially the route he intended to take, which is not at all the
one he is supposed to be going over, and threw out strong hints to the
effect that if he wanted to put an end to the man's vicious career there
would be no interference from him (the sheriff) or his posse. He even
told Faye of a lonesome spot where it could be accomplished easily and
safely!

This was a strange thing for a sheriff to do, even in this country of
desperadoes, and shows what a fiend he considers Oliver to be. He said
that the man was the leader of a gang of the lowest and boldest type
of villains, and that even now it would be safer to have him out of the
way. Sheriffs are afraid of these men, and do not like to be obliged to
arrest them.

The day of the trial, and as Faye was about to go to the court room, a
corporal came to the house and told him that he had just come from Las
Animas, where he had heard from a reliable source t