e,
but it's Farron and little Jessie I'm thinking of. He and his two men
would have no show whatever in case of a sudden and determined attack.
They have not been harmed so far, because the Indians always crossed
below Laramie and came up to the Chug, and so there was timely warning.
Now, they have seen Farron's place up there all by itself. They can
easily find out, by hanging around the traders at Red Cloud, who lives
there, how many men he has, and about Jessie. Next to surprising and
killing a white man in cold blood, those fellows like nothing better
than carrying off a white child and concealing it among them. The
gypsies have the same trait. Now, they know that so long as they cross
below Laramie the scouts are almost sure to discover it in an hour or
two, and as soon as they strike the Chug Valley some herders come
tumbling in here and give the alarm. They have come over regularly every
moon, since General Crook went up in February, _until now_."

The operator went on impressively:

"The moon's almost on the wane, and they haven't shown up yet. Now, what
worries me is just this. Suppose they _should_ push out westward from
the reservation, cross the Platte somewhere about Bull Bend or even
nearer Laramie, and come down the Chug from the north. Who is to give
Farron warning?"

"They're bound to hear it at Laramie and telegraph you at once,"
suggested one of the ranchmen.

"Not necessarily. The river isn't picketed between Fetterman and
Laramie, simply because the Indians have always tried the lower
crossings. The stages go through three times a week, and there are
frequent couriers and trains, but they don't keep a lookout for pony
tracks. The chances are that their crossing would not be discovered for
twenty-four hours or so, and as to the news being wired to us here,
those reds would never give us a chance. The first news we got of their
deviltry would be that they had cut the line ten or twelve miles this
side of Laramie as they came sweeping down.

"I tell you, boys," continued the operator, half rising from his chair
in his earnestness, "I hate to think of little Jessie up there to-night.
I go in every few minutes and call up Laramie or Fetterman just to feel
that all is safe, and stir up Lodge Pole, behind us, to realize that
we've got the Fifth Cavalry only twenty-five miles away; but the Indians
haven't missed a moon yet, and there's only one more night of this."

Even as his hearers sat in silence