e Army."

"I probably wouldn't have been in the Army much longer, sir, if you
hadn't got your rifle and fired just as you did," retorted the boyish
sergeant.

"And I couldn't have reached my rifle if you hadn't shown the very
unusual nerve to try to whip a bear in a bayonet charge."

"I know a good deal better, now, Mr. Darrin, how useless a bayonet
attack is against a bear. Though Sergeant Terry and I once made a good
haul of bear's meat with bayonets when at too close quarters with
bears."

"You'll have to tell me about that as you go along," remarked the young
Naval officer.

Noting the locality well, they left the bear where it had fallen, to be
taken up a little later.

"Hello, sir. There are other shots from our party," cried Overton, as
three rifle reports rang out not far away. "That seems to show, sir,
that they're meeting with luck, too."

CHAPTER XXIV

CONCLUSION

AFTER that, through the days to come, the luck seemed to boom.

At the end of four days young Sergeant Terry and his guard returned,
having turned over all the prisoners to the sheriff of Blank County.

Noll had also wired the post at Fort Clowdry, and had received the post
adjutant's answer that a guard would be sent to bring Private Hinkey
back for trial on the charge of desertion.

"The sheriff knew all the prisoners at once, all except Hinkey,"
Sergeant Noll reported back to his chum and to Lieutenant Prescott. "The
leader of the gang is a half-popular fellow with some classes here in
the mountains. Despite the fact that he's a desperado, he is often
surprisingly good-natured, and always game when he loses. His name is
Griller--Butch Griller, he's called. His crew are called the Moccasin
Gang, because Griller has always preferred that his men wear moccasins
instead of shoes. Shoes may give out in the wilds, but moccasins can
always be made whenever an antelope is killed."

"The Moccasin Gang?" repeated Lieutenant Prescott. "Why, I've heard
stories about that desperate crowd. But what were they doing around our
camp?"

"Griller told me about that before we reached town," Sergeant Noll
continued. "Griller and his men, it seems, were being pursued by the
sheriff of the next county. He trailed them to a cabin where they had
stopped and made such a complete surprise that Griller and his gang got
away only by jumping through the windows without their arms. Then they
traveled fast. When they found that there were soldiers her