, weighing in his mind the propriety of the step he was about to
take, he turned back and asked,

"What is the matter with you, sir? Are you ill?"

"'Ill'?" repeated the man, without looking up. "Worse than that--worse
than that."

"Is there anything that I can do for you?" asked George. "You seem to be
in great trouble."

As these words fell upon his ear the man straightened up, and, gazing at
George with a pair of wild-looking eyes, said, in a voice that was
rendered husky by some strong emotion,

"I am in trouble, partner, and although I do not think you can help me
in any way, I feel grateful to you for your sympathy. I have been
bounced by the hostiles and cleaned out--completely cleaned out."

"That _is_ bad," returned George, who told himself that the man took his
loss very much to heart. He knew a good many stock-raisers who had been
"bounced" and "cleaned out," but he had never before seen one who seemed
to be so utterly broken down by his misfortunes as this one did. The
stranger's next words, however, explained it all.

"The loss of my ranche and stock I don't mind," said he; "that's
nothing. But when one sees his two motherless boys carried off by the
red fiends, while he is powerless to help them, it's pretty rough, it's
pretty rough."

"Why, this must be the man the colonel told me about last night," said
George to himself.

"I should not fear that the savages would raise their hands against the
lives of the boys (they are too young to be put to torture, one being
eight and the other ten years of age) if it were not for one thing,"
continued the bereaved father, jumping to his feet and pacing back and
forth like a caged tiger. "I made a hard fight of it, and dropped a
Kiowa for every year of my oldest boy's age. Of course the death of
those warriors will have to be avenged by their relatives. Perhaps you
don't know it, but that is Indian law."

"I do know it," interrupted George. "I couldn't have lived so close to
these raiders, both Indians and Mexicans, nearly all my life without
learning something about their ways, could I? I am a Texan, like
yourself."

"You are? I took you for a Yankee soldier."

"There's where you made a mistake," replied George. "I was born in
Miller county in this State, and I am here to act as guide to the troops
when they cross the river in pursuit of the cattle-thieves."

"Good! Put it there!" exclaimed the man, extending his hand, while his
face for the moment