om his place,
and with which he had intended to reach home that night. But, for the
sake of inducing the new arrivals to go up into his part of the
country, he was willing to stay.

"I should think you would be afraid to leave your wife and baby all
alone there in the wilderness," said Sandy, regarding his new friend
with evident admiration. "No neighbor nearer than Hunter's Creek, did
you say? How far off is that?"

"Well, a matter of six miles-like," replied Younkins. "It isn't often
that I do leave them alone over night; but then I have to once in a
while. My old woman, she doesn't mind it. She was sort of skeary-like
when she first came into the country; but she's got used to it. We
don't want any neighbors. If you folks come up to settle, you'll be
on the other side of the river," he said, with unsmiling candor.
"That's near enough--three or four miles, anyway."

Fort Riley is about ten miles from Manhattan, at the forks of the Kaw.
It was a long drive for one afternoon; but the settlers from Illinois
camped on the edge of the military reservation that night. When the
boys, curious to see what the fort was like, looked over the premises
next morning, they were somewhat disappointed to find that the post
was merely a quadrangle of buildings constructed of rough-hammered
stone. A few frame houses were scattered about. One of these was the
sutler's store, just on the edge of the reservation. But, for the most
part, the post consisted of two- or three-story buildings arranged in
the form of a hollow square. These were barracks, officers' quarters,
and depots for the storage of military supplies and army equipments.

"Why, this is no fort!" said Oscar, contemptuously. "There isn't even
a stockade. What's to prevent a band of Indians raiding through the
whole place? I could take it myself, if I had men enough."

His cousin Charlie laughed, and said: "Forts are not built out here
nowadays to defend a garrison. The army men don't propose to let the
Indians get near enough to the post to threaten it. The fact is, I
guess, this fort is only a depot-like, as our friend Younkins would
say, for the soldiers and for military stores. They don't expect ever
to be besieged here; but if there should happen to be trouble anywhere
along the frontier, then the soldiers would be here, ready to fly out
to the rescue, don't you see?"

"Yes," answered Sandy; "and when a part of the garrison had gone to
the rescue, as you call it, an