“I rode putty hard all night; and, just after daylight, saw some deer on the prairie, and shot one, never thinkin’ that I hadn’t another charge for my rifle, and no way of buildin’ a fire ter cook with.

“Yer see the Injuns always start a fire by rubbin’ two dry sticks together, but I hadn’t no time for that, ’cause I wanted to put as many miles as I could between me and ther village.  While I was a-wonderin’ what ter do, I happened to think about puttin’ it under the saddle; so I hunted round and found a sharp stone, and managed to cut some putty fair slices out ev the leg, and clapped ’em under the saddle and rode on.

“I got pretty hungry by noon, so I stopped to let my horse eat a little, and looked at my steaks, and they was cooked just as nice as I ever see steaks cooked in my life; and they was good, too, you bet.

“I made a tip-top meal, and then thought I’d lay down and take a little nap.  I slept for an hour or two, and then saddled up, and rode along.  Putty soon I happened ter look round, and, blast my picter, ef there warn’t eight Comanches a-comin’ after me like the very devil.

“I just put the spurs to my hoss; and from the best calculations I could make, I made up my mind thet they’d ketch me in just about ten miles further.  I see they was a-gainin’ on me, and I hadn’t nothin’ to defend myself with but a empty rifle, and that warn’t no account agin bows and arrows; so I throwed it away, and made up my mind, if wost came to wost, I’d take my chances in the river, ’cause yer see the Comanches never let a prisoner get away the second time.  I kept urgin’ my hoss, and the critter kep’ tryin’, but I see he was about blowed, an’ ’twarn’t no use.  I had just concluded I must take to the river, when I happened to look up and see a dozen soldiers coming right towards me.  The Injuns see ’em as quick as I did, and the way they turned and put back was a caution to anything I ever see.”

“What were the soldiers doing there?” asked Ned.

“Why, they was a scoutin’ party out from the post, about twenty miles below where we was.  They chased the Injuns, but the devils scattered and ’twarn’t no use.

“I went in to the fort with ’em, and stayed thar about a week, and then went down to San Antonio with Major Neighbors, the Injun agent.  Afterwards, I heard that the soldiers went up and cleaned the village out, but I don’t know nothin’ about that.

“There, youngsters, you’ve hed your story, and I reckon if you’re goin’ with me to-morrow, you’d better go ter bed and git some sleep, and I’ll go back to the fort, and git ready, myself.”

Ned was delighted with Tom’s story, while Patsey declared that “he’d thry that way of cooking, steak the first blissid thing he did in the mornin’,—­that he would, sure.”

With the first faint streak of light in the eastern sky, our little party were on their way to the fort.  We found that Lieutenant Howland had detailed a squad of twenty of the “Mounted Rifles” under command of Lieutenant Jackson, and ordered them provisions, for ten days.  They were to start at sunrise, and Tom Pope was to lead them directly to the canon, where he had seen the trail, which we were to follow, until we overtook the thieves.