and we can all get a good night's rest up there.
Now, how shall we fix it?"

After some discussion, it was arranged that Wells should remain on the
low porch in front of Farron's ranch until midnight. The light was to be
extinguished there as soon as he arrived, as an assurance that all was
well, and it should not again appear during the night unless as a
momentary answer to signals they might make.

If information were received at Phillips's that the Indians were south
of the Platte, Ralph should fire three shots from his carbine at
intervals of five seconds; and if they heard that all was safe, he
should fire one shot to call attention and then start a small blaze out
on the bank of the stream, where it could be plainly seen from Farron's.

Wells was to show his light half a minute when he recognized the signal.
Having arrived at this understanding, the sergeant shook the hand of
Ralph and the operator and rode towards Farron's.

"What I wish," said the operator, "is that Wells could induce Farron to
let him bring Jessie here for the night; but Farron is a bull-headed
fellow and thinks no number of Indians could ever get the better of him
and his two men. He knows very little of them and is hardly alive to the
danger of his position. I think he will be safe with Wells, but, all
the same, I wish that a troop of the Fifth Cavalry had been sent forward
to-night."

After they had gone back to the office the operator "called up" Laramie.
"All quiet," was the reply, and nobody there seemed to think the Indians
had come towards the Platte.

Then the operator signalled to his associate at Lodge Pole, who wired
back that nobody there had heard anything from Laramie or elsewhere
about the Indians; that the colonel and one or two of his officers had
been in the station a while during the evening and had sent messages to
Cheyenne and Omaha and received one or two, but that they had all gone
out to camp. Everything was quiet; "taps" had just sounded and they were
all going to bed.

"Lodge Pole" announced for himself that some old friends of his were on
the guard that night, and he was going over to smoke a pipe and have a
chat with them.

To this "Chug" responded that he wished he wouldn't leave the office.
There was no telling what might turn up or how soon he'd be wanted.

But "Lodge Pole" said the operators were not required to stay at the
board after nine at night; he would have the keeper of the station
listen for