Lodge Pole _en route_ for Fort Laramie. Now he is talking with Ralph.

"It isn't that, my boy. I do not suppose there is an Indian anywhere
near the Chugwater; but if your father thought it best that you should
wait and start with us, I think it was his desire that you should keep
in the protection of the column all the way. Don't you?"

"Yes, sir, I do. The only question now is, will he not come or send
forward to the Chug to meet me, and could I not be with mother two days
earlier that way? Besides, Farron is determined to go ahead as soon as
he has had dinner, and--I don't like to think of little Jessie being up
there at the Chug just now. Would you mind my telegraphing to father at
Laramie and asking him?"

"No, indeed, Ralph. Do so."

And so a despatch was sent to Laramie, and in the course of an hour,
just as they had enjoyed a comfortable dinner, there came the reply,--

"All right. Come ahead to Phillips's Ranch. Party will meet you there at
eight in the morning. They stop at Eagle's Nest to-night."

Ralph's eyes danced as he showed this to the colonel who read it gravely
and replied,--

"It is all safe, I fancy, or your father would not say so. They have
patrols all along the bank of the Platte to the southeast, and no
Indians can cross without its being discovered in a few hours. I suppose
they never come across between Laramie and Fetterman, do they, Ralph?"

"Certainly not of late years, colonel. It is so far off their line to
the reservations where they have to run for safety after their
depredations."

"I know that; but now that all but two troops of cavalry have gone up
with General Crook they might be emboldened to try a wider sweep. That's
all I'm afraid of."

"Even if the Indians came, colonel, they've got those ranch buildings so
loop-holed and fortified at Phillips's that we could stand them off a
week if need be, and you would reach there by noon at latest."

"Yes. We make an early start to-morrow morning, and 'twill be just
another twenty-five miles to our camp on the Chug. If all is well you
will be nearly to Eagle's Nest by the time we get to Phillips's, and you
will be at Laramie before the sunset-gun to-morrow. Well, give my
regards to your father, Ralph, and keep your eye open for the main
chance. We cavalry people want you for our representative at West Point,
you know."

"Thank you for that, colonel," answered Ralph, with sparkling eyes. "I
sha'n't forget it in many a day."