rn to laugh,
then.

The boys examined the tracks left in the soft loam of the garden by
the strange animal, and came to the conclusion that it must have been
a very large wolf, for its footsteps were deep as if it were a heavy
creature, and their size was larger than that of any wolf-tracks they
had ever seen.

When the elders heard the story on their arrival from Chapman's, that
evening, Uncle Aleck remarked with some grimness, "So the wolf is at
the door at last, boys." The lads by this understood that poverty
could not be far off; but they could not comprehend that poverty could
affect them in a land where so much to live upon was running wild, so
to speak.

"Who is this that rides so fast?" queried Charlie, a day or two after
the wolf adventure, as he saw a stranger riding up the trail from the
ford. It was very seldom that any visitor, except the good Younkins,
crossed their ford. And Younkins always came over on foot.

Here was a horseman who rode as if in haste. The unaccustomed sight
drew all hands around the cabin to await the coming of the stranger,
who rode as if he were on some important errand bent. It was Battles.
His errand was indeed momentous. A corporal from the post had come to
his claim, late in the night before, bidding him warn all the settlers
on the Fork that the Cheyennes were coming down the Smoky Hill,
plundering, burning, and slaying the settlers. Thirteen white people
had been killed in the Smoky Hill country, and the savages were
evidently making their way to the fort, which at that time was left in
an unprotected condition. The commanding officer sent word to all
settlers that if they valued their lives they would abandon their
claims and fly to the fort for safety. Arms and ammunition would be
furnished to all who came. Haste was necessary, for the Indians were
moving rapidly down the Smoky Hill.

"But the Smoky Hill is twenty-five or thirty miles from here," said
Mr. Bryant; "why should they strike across the plains between here and
there?"

Battles did not know; but he supposed, from his talk with the
corporal, that it was expected that the Cheyennes would not go quite
to the fort, but, having raided the Smoky Hill country down as near to
the post as might seem safe, they would strike across to the
Republican Fork at some narrow point between the two rivers, travel up
that stream, and so go back to the plains from which they came,
robbing and burning by the way.

The theory s