his ambition, and he still retained some of the
ways of the sea. Just as Webb feared, some few of Stabber's young
warriors had been left behind, and their eagle-eyed lookout had sighted
the far-distant courier almost as soon as Sandy's famous telescope. Now
they were hastening to head him off.

But he seemed to have totally vanished. Level as appeared the northward
prairie from the commanding height on which stood the throng of eager
watchers, it was in reality a low, rolling surface like some lazily
heaving sea that had become suddenly solidified. Long, broad, shallow
dips or basins lay between broad, wide, far-extending, yet slight,
upheavals. Through the shallows turned and twisted dozens of dry
arroyos, all gradually trending toward the Platte,--the drainage system
of the frontier. Five miles out began the ascent to the taller divides
and ridges that gradually, and with many an intervening dip, rose to the
watershed between the Platte and the score of tiny tributaries that
united to form the South Cheyenne. It was over Moccasin, or Ten Mile,
Ridge, as it was often called, and close to the now abandoned stage
road, Ray's daring little command had disappeared from view toward eight
o'clock. It was at least two, possibly three, miles east of the
stage-road that the solitary courier had first been sighted, and when
later seen by the major and certain others of the swift gathering
spectators, he was heading for Frayne, though still far east of the
highroad.

And now Mrs. Ray, on the north piazza, with Webb by her side and Nannie
Blake, Mrs. Dade and Esther in close attendance, was briefly telling the
major what she had seen up stream. One glance through Sandy's glass had
told her the little fellow had not watched in vain.

Then, with the ready binocular, she had turned to the Indian encampment
up the Platte, and almost instantly saw signs of commotion,--squaws and
children running about, ponies running away and Indian boys pursuing.
Then, one after another, three Indians,--warriors, presumably,--had
lashed away northward and she had sent Sandy on the run to tell the
major, even while keeping watch on this threatening three until they
shot behind a long, low ridge that stretched southward from the
foothills. Beyond doubt they were off in hopes of bagging that solitary
horseman, speeding with warning of some kind for the shelter of Fort
Frayne.

By this time there must have been nearly two hundred men, women and
chil