w him bring his
horse to a sudden halt. At the same moment a couple of rustlers moved
into view, their guns held so as to cover him. He sat motionless until
they came up, one on either side, when he was seen to be conversing
earnestly with them.

"They have made him prisoner," remarked Hawkridge, "just as I was sure
they would."

"Will they do him harm?" asked Mrs. Whitney, who, with Jennie, had
descended the stairs and stood with the group near the front door.

"No," was Hawkridge's reassuring reply; "he must see the uselessness
of resistance, and we are not fighting Indians who learned warfare
from the late lamented Sitting Bull."

It was noticed that Fred Whitney, despite the wound of a couple of
days before, no longer wore his arm in a sling. As he had said, he was
ashamed to do so.

Brave as was the young man, he had judgment. He knew that he was at
the mercy of a score of rustlers, and quickly learned the situation.
Capt. Asbury, Monteith Sterry, Dick Hawkridge and a number of
cattlemen were besieged in his home.

While he was holding earnest converse with his captors one of them
turned and addressed Inman, who was out of sight of the besieged,
because of the intervening ridge. His reply caused Whitney to dismount
and walk in that direction, he, too, passing out of the field of
vision.

He was invisible for perhaps ten minutes, when he was seen coming
over the ridge toward his own door, but without his Winchester or
revolvers. A moment later he was admitted. He kissed his mother and
sister and grasped the hands of his friends, who crowded around to
congratulate him and hear what he had to say.

"They told me everything," he replied, looking into the glowing faces,
and smiling at the anxiety depicted on several. "I have made a woeful
mistake, boys."

"How's that?" asked several in the same breath.

"Hankinson and Weber have moved several miles further into the
mountains, so nothing will be seen of them for several days, and
perhaps not for a week. The trouble with the rustlers makes it
necessary that we should keep closer watch than usual upon the stock,
and it is understood that they are not to leave the cattle until they
get word from me. So, as I said, they are out of the question."

"Is that the mistake you refer to?" asked Sterry.

"I wish it was; but a couple of hours ago, Hankinson, who had ridden
a considerable distance beyond the grazing grounds, came in with the
report that a large body o