orses.
The rain turned to a fine hail and stung their faces. Had it not
been for his two good comrades Dick would have found his situation
inexpressibly lonely and dreary. The heavy fog now enveloped all the
peaks and ridges and filled every valley and chasm. He could see only
fifteen or twenty yards ahead along the muddy path, and the fine hail
which gave every promise of becoming a storm of sleet stung continually.
The wind confined in the narrow gorge also uttered a hideous shrieking
and moaning.

"Tests your nerve!" shouted Petty to Dick. "There are hard things
besides battles to stand, an' this is goin' to be one of the hard ones,
but if you go through it all right you kin go through any number of the
same kind all right, too. Likely the sleet will be so thick that it will
make a sheet of slippery ice for us comin' back. Now, hosses that ain't
got calks on thar shoes are pretty shore to slip an' fall, breakin' a
leg or two, an' mebbe breakin' the necks of thar riders."

Dick looked at him with some amazement. Despite his announcement of dire
disaster the man's eyes twinkled merrily and the round, red outline of
his bushy head in the scarlet comforter made a cheerful blaze.

"It's jest as I told you," said Petty, meeting the boy's look. "Without
calks on thar shoes our hosses are pretty shore to slip on the ice
and break theirselves up, or fall down a cliff an' break themselves up
more."

"Then why in thunder, Blaze," exclaimed Whitley, "did we start without
calks on the shoes of our horses?"

Red Blaze broke into a deep mellow laugh, starting from the bottom of
his diaphragm, swelling as it passed through his chest, swelling again
as it passed through throat and mouth, and bursting upon the open air in
a mighty diapason that rose cheerfully above the shrieking and moaning
of the wind.

"We didn't start without em," he replied. "The twelve feet of these
three hosses have on 'em the finest calked shoes in all these mountains.
I put 'em on myself, beginnin' the job this mornin' before you was
awake, your colonel, on the advice of the people of Townsville who know
me as one of its leadin' an' trusted citizens, havin' selected me as the
guide of this trip. I was jest tellin' you what would happen to you if I
didn't justify the confidence of the people of Townsville."

"I allow, Red Blaze," said the sergeant with confidence, "that you ain't
no fool, an' that you're lookin' out for our best interests. Lead on."