ches, whar we could keep
our eyes on th' old crossin' an' th' main trail at th' same time. An' we
hadn't been thar very long afore 'long comes th' caravan, full o'
greasers. But, hell: it war guarded by a couple hundred dragoons under
yer Captain Cook which kept us from hittin' it till it got acrost th'
river an' past th' sand-hills, whar U.S. troops dassn't go, seein' it's
Texas soil.

"Everythin' would 'a' been all right if Snively hadn't got polite an'
went over ter visit Cook. They had a red-hot palaver, Cook sayin' he
warn't goin' ter escort a caravan till it was plumb inter danger an'
then stand by an' let it go on ter git wiped out. Snively told him we
warn't aimin' ter wipe it out, but only ter get th' greasers with it.
They had it powerful hard, I heard, an' Cook up an' says he's goin' ter
take our guns away from us if it cost him every man he had. Danged if he
didn't do it, too!"

Flint was laughing heartily and broke in. "Wonder what he thought o' our
weapons?" he exulted. "Not one o' 'em that he got from _our_ bunch war
worth a dang."

Burch grinned in turn. "Ye see, we had took th' guns belongin' ter
Armijo's scoutin' party, an' when Cook took up his collection, a lot o'
th' boys, hidin' thar own good weapons, sorrerfully hands over th'
danged _escopetas_ an' blunderbusses an' bows an' arrers o' th'
greasers. However, he disarmed us an' kept us thar till th' caravan got
such a big start thar warn't no earthly use o' goin' after it, thar not
bein' more'n sixty or seventy o' us that had good weapons. Some o' th'
boys struck out fer home, an' a couple o' score went with th' dragoons
back ter Missouri. Us that war left, about as many as went home, made
Warfield captain ag'in an' went after th' danged caravan, anyhow. We
follered it near ter Point o' Rocks before we gave it up. Nobody
reckoned thar war two caravans on th' trail this year, so Warfield an'
most o' th' boys went back ter Texas; but thar's considerable few o' us
roamin' 'round up hyar, dodgin' th' Comanches on a gamble o' gittin' in
a crack at some o' Armijo's sojers that might come scoutin' 'round ter
see if we has all went back. Anyhow, bein' so fur from home, an'
hankerin' fer a little huntin', we figgered that we might stay up hyar
till fall, or mebby all winter if we hung out at Bent's."

"We made a big mistake, though," confessed Flint. "Ye see, a greaser
must 'a' got away from that fight an' took th' news ter Armijo. When we
passed Cold