Year: 1875

had ridden hard and fast, and was
astonished TO find myself coming into a
struggling settlement. On the course
which / should have taken there was
nothing of the sort Somewhere had
crossed the right trail and taken the
wrong one. Almost any traveller in the
border sections would have been glad to
thus stumble upon a place for food and
refreshment. Not so with myself. In
the breast pocket of my coat | carried
five thousand four hundred and ninety
odd dollars, United States money. Ihad
received this amount from Major Gener-
al T. NJ. Lacy, and it was to be carried
through to l. and placed in the
hands of Colonel Asa F. Southland, to
defray necessary army expenses.


''Get through at your best gait,
Carnes, said the major, the money is
long since over due, and Southard's
rather irascible temper must have been
tried to the utmost. You know how the
soldiers get to growing if Uncle Sam is
at all delinquent in paying up. Ride in
a careless manner, but be very careful.
| don't think that any one dreams of the
arrival of this money-saye of course,
the mail agent and the clerk who de-
livered lie the package"


was directed over an unfamiliar sec
ton, hence my losing of the right route.
| considered it my safest plan, so long as
had blundered upon the verge of the
settlement, to boldly enter and rest as
an ordinary traveller would do. Should
push hurriedly on, might by that very
act excite suspicion.


There were only two men in the bar
room when entered; the landlord and
the hostler. Under his familiar cordial
ity the landlord furtively eyed me in n
manner that made me wish 1 WIS we'll
done with my job, but treasured myself
with the thought that it was the CON
sciousness of the responsibility repoSing
upon me that caused his glances to dis
turb me.


Before had finished my supper two
more travellers rode up, called out for
the hostler, and ordered drinks, or rather
one of them came in with the orders, and
the other threw himself on bench out
side and began loading n huge pipe
SIolling carelesSly about the room, l
mlnaged to glance out of the window.
Ny heart leaped into my throat, for the
man outside-I recognized from des-
cription of him-Bill Wolf-one of the
most desperate characters that ever fig
ured in the annals of border ruffianism.
There was the huge red mustache, the
thick. hairy throat, and the shoulders
hunched up around his head, suggesting
the shape of n mammoth cIain-and the
voice with deep Gown intcnation like
the plOp. plop, plop OF water hurriedly
leaving a jug. II the description of the
notorious renegade is inelrgant, it has
the merit of truthfulness, and must,
therefore, be excused.


| went throu-h with my supper i'm
form, but whatever appetite | might
have felt on my entrance into the inn,
had vanished with my discovery. After
n time the other fellow came in, having
been ont. hc said, to look after the ami
mails, anl they also ordered supper
Now was INV time TO leave, which did
in a careless manner, passing some com
mon place remarks with the two men as
crossed the dim. smoky bar-room. As
they seemed 10 take no notice of me,
whatever. felt my spirits rise with hope
that should make safe transit. Ii was
quite duskish outside, but the hOstler
was fitting about the stable with his
lantern, which emitted bat little more
effdigeai light than n white bean would
have done, bnt he graeiousIy brought
out my steed at the order, aud, mount
ing. | thankfully trotted away. The
moOn--a little past the fall--would make
her debut in little more than an hour af-
ter sunset, and pushed along at smart
trot SO as to get well out upon the plains
and into the right trail before that time.
The animal went along at an assuring
gait, and was feeling infinitely relieved
at my providential escape from contact
with the desperate characters whom |
had left at the settlement, when my
acute, trained, ever alert ears detected
the sound of swift riding. In which di-
rectionl From behind me, as the mildly
floating breeze led from that quarter. -
The face of the prairie in this section
was little rolling, but not so as to afford
any shelter, and not shrub or bush dot
ted the expanse for III any miles.


Idrew up my horse one moment TO lis
ten. No chance travellers ever ride like
that. 1t meant pursuit.


I gave my stead a CALLING lash and she
broke into n convulsive gait, hove her
body up with one or two plunges. STUN
bled, going down from her knees to her
nose, and pitched me literally heels over
head. For an instant was paralyzed
with astonishment, the next seized the
bit to fetch up the fallen animal, which
had in the brief mishap undergone a
strange metamorphosis. She had lost her
white face en- or in the grass, and, pass.
| ing my hand between her ewes I found
the hair was wet In an instant was
examining the white Iegs-my horse had
| haan nacuI;ar,, ,,,o-l-z .s1 Ii