lity."

Again catching the twinkle in his blue eyes, I exclaimed impulsively:
"True! why not? Why not march on down the Rio Grande without delay?"

He shook his head. "Hold hard, John. You forget that this is supposedly
the Red River. Also you forget your own observation as to how much more
convincing is an argument when made from behind a fortification, and,"
his voice sobered, "you forget those whom we must first rescue."

"God forgive me!" I cried. "That I should for a moment lose thought of
those poor lads! Give me a detail, if no more than a single man. I will
go back at once and fetch them."

"No," he replied. "We are still weak; you could not bear them through
the drifts, and they cannot walk as yet. We must first build a stockade
yonder in the valley. They had food enough to last many days. In good
time I will send back a detachment to the Arkansas for the pack train.
The injured lads can be brought through on horseback."

"I will go now!"

"You will go with us," he commanded. "If, as is possible, we have come
within measurable distance of the Spanish settlements, we must establish
a fort without delay. It is imperative. I need every man of you."

When the Lieutenant spoke in that tone, there was nothing to do but
obey. I turned on my heel and swung away down the pass, all the more
eager to advance, since I might not turn back.

To advance! The word thrilled me throughout every fibre of my being. To
advance! Well enough was it for Pike to express doubts--to talk solemnly
of the Red River. He had to bear in mind the problem of diplomatic
explanations to the Spaniards. But as for myself, I rejoiced in the
conviction that the stream before us was in truth the Spanish River of
the North; that within the distance of a few days' journey southward lay
the upper Spanish settlements, beyond which, somewhere in the interior
of New Spain, lay Chihuahua, the seat of government for the northern
provinces, and the goal of my love-quest! I no longer doubted, I knew!
We had crossed the Sangre de Cristo! I had passed the Barrier!

Small wonder was it that I chafed during the many days which yet
intervened before I was free to fare away on the road which led toward
my lady! First of all came our check at the west base of the mountains,
where a vast line of sand hills blocked our advance into the valley and
compelled us to skirt along some distance to the south before we could
march out toward the river. It took yet two m