returned the scout. "But," he added softly as he
hitched his trousers, "I think one of the two might be young John
Rebstock."

"You need lose no time, Bob. Here are ten men with fresh horses at
your orders." Stanley pointed to the troopers who were unloading their
mounts.

"Give Dave and me three of the best of these men," said Scott. "I will
follow the west trail. Put a sergeant with the others on the trail
east to make sure they haven't doubled back on us--but I don't think
they have."

"Why?"

"They must have stolen that team and wagon, that is certain. More than
likely they murdered the man they took it from. The trail is probably
alive with men looking for them. These fellows were trying to get to
Casement's camp for gambling, and probably they are heading that way
fast now. We will pick those fellows up, colonel, somewhere between
here and Bridger's Gap."

The three troopers that Scott selected were told off and, after a few
rapid arrangements for sending back information, the five men of the
west-trail party, headed by Scott and Dave Hawk, rode down Bitter
Creek and, scattering in a wide skirmish line wherever the formation
of the country permitted, scanned the ground for signs of the
fugitives.

"We shan't find anything till we get to where they were when the rain
stopped," Scott told the trooper near whom he was riding. It was, in
fact, nearly ten miles from Point of Rocks before they picked up the
footprints of two men travelling apart from each other, but headed
north and west. These they followed on a long detour away from the
regular wagon road until the two trails turned and entered, from the
southwest, a camp made the night before by a big trading outfit on the
regular overland trail.

Here, of course, all trace of the men disappeared. It was now drawing
toward evening. Scott resolved to follow the trading outfit, but the
party still rode slowly to make sure the men they wanted did not sneak
away from the wagons of their new-found friends. The pursuers rode
steadily on, and as the sun went down they perceived in a small canyon
ahead of them the wagons of the outfit they were trailing, parked in a
camp for the night.

Scott gave the troopers directions as to where to post themselves, at
some distance east and west of the canyon, to provide against a sortie
of the fugitives and, riding with Hawk directly into the camp, asked
for the boss. He appeared after some delay and proved to be a French
t