mmodating enough to warn
Fletcher, and so put him on his guard.

"Where have you been since I last saw you?" inquired George, "and what
has become of my horse? What did the 'boss' say when he found I had
slipped through his fingers? I told you I shouldn't stay there and allow
myself to be robbed. Did he follow me?"

"No, he didn't foller you, 'cause nobody knowed till mornin' come that
you had skipped out," answered Springer. "When Fletcher went to call
you to breakfast, an' you wasn't there, he thought you was a-loafin'
around somewheres about the ranche; but when somebody told him that the
hoss with the four white feet, that follered us acrost the river on the
night we tried to get the strong-box out of this house, was gone, he
knowed in a minute what was up, an' he was about the maddest man you
ever see. But he couldn't take time to hunt you up, an' all he could do
was to swear that he'd hold fast to you the next time he got his hands
on to you."

"He'll never get his hands on me again," said George confidently.

"I hope he won't, but if he does it'll be worse for you. That there
black hoss of your'n is dead," continued Springer; "he was shot at
Queretaro. You see, when we got down to the place where the fightin' was
goin' on, we knowed in a minute that Max couldn't hold out much longer,
so we started one dark night to cross over to Juarez. His soldiers seen
us comin', an', thinkin' that we were up to some trick or another, they
turned loose on us an' cut us up fearful."

"It served you just right," said George, with honest indignation. "You
had no business to go in with Maximilian in the first place, but having
joined him you ought to have stood by him to the last."

"We _did_ stand by him after that, 'cause we had to," answered Springer.
"But it didn't take 'em long to captur' the place, an' it didn't take
them long either to say what should be done with Max. He an' Mejia an'
Miramon were took out on a hill near the ruins of an old stone fort an'
shot. I didn't see it, 'cause I was under guard with Fletcher an' the
rest; but I heared some of 'em who did see it say that just before the
shooting was done Max he says to Miramon, 'The bravest man should have
the post of honor;' so he puts Miramon in the middle, an' Max he stood
on the left. It was a mean piece of business all the way through," said
Springer, drawing his hand nervously across his forehead, "an' I am
powerful glad that I am well out of it. Now, Mr.