unless I was a civil officer and armed with a
search-warrant. He is a hard one, unless his looks belie him."

"I thought so myself," said Loring. "But you are not going back without
Bryant, are you? What do you suppose he is doing there, anyway?"

"Of course I shall not go back without him," answered Bob quietly. "He
has probably hired out to that squatter, and we must watch our chance
and catch him out of doors before we can arrest him."

"Well, are you going to Brazos City?"

"Not by a long shot. Bristow and the fellows who are still with him have
not gone that way. As soon as we get behind that belt of post-oaks you
see in advance of us, I intend to circle around and go back toward the
river again."

Although the troopers rode at a rapid gait, it took them nearly three
hours to carry out this programme. At the end of that time they struck
the old stage-road, which, in the days gone by, had served as a highway
between Brownsville and some of the remote frontier-towns; but when the
raiders forced the settlements back into the interior the stage-route
was abandoned, and all that now remained to tell of the business that
had once been done on it were the half-ruined stations which were
scattered along the road at intervals of fifteen or twenty miles.

These stations were built of stone, and were large enough to accommodate
a dozen horses and half as many stable-men and drivers, besides the
necessary food for both men and animals. Each station was provided with
a "dug-out," a miniature fort, into which the employees of the route
could retreat in case they were attacked by hostile Indians or Mexican
raiders. It was simply a cellar of sufficient size to shelter nine or
ten men at close quarters, covered with logs and dirt, and furnished
with loopholes on all sides at the height of a foot or more above the
ground. It looked like a mound of earth supported on logs about two feet
high. The only way of getting into one of these little fortifications
was through an underground passage-way which led from the stables. With
these arrangements for their defence a few well-armed and determined men
could hold their own against all the raiders that could get around them.

About four o'clock in the afternoon Bob and his troopers came within
sight of one of these stations, and as soon as their eyes rested upon it
they drew up their horses with a jerk, at the same time uttering
exclamations of astonishment and delight. Standing in f