eat and steal."

"It was Matt Gilroy who got me into this," answered Potts. "He----"

"Don't put it off on to somebody else, Potts!" cried the old scout
wrathfully. "If you aint got backbone enough to be honest, it's your own
fault."

"Will you let me go, if I promise to leave this Territory?" asked Potts
eagerly.

"No, sirree!" was Benson's answer. "You shall suffer the full extent of
the law, and don't you forget it!"

While waiting for the return of Cass and Bernstein, the old scout
searched Potts and the dead body of Fetter, taking away all their
weapons and some papers which Potts carried.

These papers showed how deep-laid was the plot which the desperadoes had
formed to gain possession of the money stored at Fort Carson, and how
they had duped the Indians under White Ox and other chiefs to assist
them.

At last Cass and Bernstein came back, all out of breath with running.

"Did he get away?" questioned Benson quickly.

"He did and he didn't," answered Cass. "He ran up Cedar Cliff, and
seeing we were after him he tried to jump to the other side of the
canyon. But he missed his footing in the dark, and went down, and that's
the last we seen or heard of him."

"And that's the last anybody will see or hear of him," answered the old
scout. "That canyon is three hundred feet deep, and nothing but sharp
rocks, sides and bottom. He's done for."

The march onward was now resumed, the old scout forcing Potts to walk
between himself and the boys, with his hands tied tightly behind him.

"If you make any noise it will cost you your life," said Benson to the
prisoner, and thereupon Potts became perfectly mute. To tell the truth
the desperado was thoroughly downcast, and his face was filled with
despair.

They calculated that it was two o'clock in the morning when the heights
above Decker's Falls was gained, a wild spot, from which old Benson had
often viewed the fort, miles below, in the valley.

The driest possible brush was gathered, and on this were heaped several
good-sized limbs, that the fire might burn an hour or two. Quarter of a
mile away another similar fire was kindled, and at this spot the boys
set off all but one of their remaining rockets.

"There is the answer from the fort!" said Joe, as two rockets flared up
in the dim distance. "Anyway, Will knows we have gotten this far."

"But he doesn't know of the adventure we have had on the way," said
Darry.

As soon as the fires were well under w