afternoon was half gone, when, on one of these occasions, the scout
who had just crept to the top of an elevation was seen by the others to
gaze long and steadily in a particular direction through his
field-glass. At length, apparently satisfied with what he saw, he stood
up, and flashed a dazzling ray of sunlight from a small mirror that he
held in his hand. Again and again did he send that flash over miles of
prairie, before he saw the answering flash for which he was watching.
Then he called the others up; they talked earnestly together for a few
minutes, and, having reached some conclusion, they galloped rapidly
away, almost at right angles to the course they had been following.

Glen wondered what this movement meant; but it was not until they had
ridden for nearly an hour that his unasked questions were answered.
Then, as though by magic, so unexpectedly did they appear, a score or
more of Indians seemed to spring from the ground and surround them. It
was a Cheyenne war-party. Their ponies, under watchful guard, grazed in
a slight depression to one side of them, and their scouts kept a keen
lookout from a rise of ground beyond.

While these warriors were exchanging greetings with the new-comers, and
regarding the prisoner with unconcealed satisfaction, two white men,
utterly unsuspicious of their presence so near them, were lounging in
front of the Lost Creek stage station, less than a mile away. From this
station the scouts had stolen their ponies and the white mule two nights
before.

The ranch and stable stood side by side, and were low, one-story
buildings, with walls of a soft sandstone, quarried near by, and roofs
of poles covered with sods. Behind them was a corral enclosed by a low
stone wall. The ranch and stable were connected by a narrow subterranean
passage, and another led from the house to a "dug-out," or square pit,
some ten yards from it. This "dug-out" had a roof of poles heavily
covered with earth and sods; while, just at the surface of the ground,
port-holes opened on all sides. A similar pit, on the other side, could
be reached from the stable, and another, in the rear of the station, was
connected with the corral.

Lost Creek Station had suffered greatly at the hands of Indians that
summer. Its inmates had been killed, and its stock run off. Now but two
men were left to guard it. This afternoon they were watching anxiously
for the stage from the east, which was some hours overdue.

Sudden