town must have been hailed with delight.  In Red River there live two old trappers, who have long since been weaned from the habits and manners of civilization.  These two men are Canadians, one of them notorious for the “yarns” he can spin; but as they are many of them past belief, they are listened to by the traveler as a help to pass the time while he is obliged to tarry in the place.  A young English nobleman who was on a visit of pleasure to the western country, once fell into this man’s clutches, and, from the trapper’s after boasting, we infer that he (the trapper) more than surpassed himself in story-telling.  Among other things, he informed this nobleman that he had once mastered a grizzly bear in a hand-to-hand fight by cramming a stick that was sharpened at both ends into the bear’s mouth in such a way that the monster could not close his jaws, because it fastened and kept them open.  Being asked by the nobleman how large were the hare in that vicinity of country, his answer was, that he had seen them of such a magnitude that one would be a load for a man, and that when strung across the hunter’s shoulder, one part was sure to be dragging on the ground.  He then boasted that he had killed a grasshopper that, with his head cut off, weighed six ounces.  Notwithstanding his love of talk, this old man had once been a brave and famous hunter; but no confidence could be placed in him, owing to his habituated want of regard for truth and honor; hence, he has long since been excluded from the companionship of the mountaineers.  The English gentleman above spoken of was an experienced traveler, and therefore undoubtedly knew how to weigh the truth of his astonishing information.

CHAPTER XIV.

Kit Carson reaches Home—­Himself and Neighbors robbed by the Apaches—­Major Grier goes in Pursuit of, and recaptures the stolen Stock—­A Plot organized by White Men to murder two Santa Fe Traders for their Money—­The Disclosure—­Kit Carson goes to the Rescue of the Traders—­The Camp of United States Recruits—­Captain Ewell with twenty Men joins Kit Carson and they two make the Arrest of Fox—­Gratitude expressed by the Traders—­Money offered but refused—­The Prisoner taken to Taos and incarcerated—­Kit Carson receives a magnificent Pair of Revolvers as a Present from the grateful Traders—­The return to Rayado—­A Trading Expedition to the United States—­The return Journey—­An Encounter with the Cheyenne Indians—­A State of Suspense—­The Deliverance from Danger by a Message sent by a Mexican Runner—­The arrival at Rayado.

After finishing the pleasant visit which he was thus enabled to make, while recruiting himself among the good people of Taos, Kit Carson bent his way to his home at Rayado.  He safely reached there and had but just dismounted at his own door, when he was informed of a recent calamity that had befallen himself and neighbors during his absence.  It was the old