ruck to ask such a question, but
one of them replied that the moon was due in half an hour.

"You've lost a good chance, sir," said Crux, who had a knack of making
all his communications as disagreeably as possible, unless they chanced
to be unavoidably agreeable, in which case he made the worst of them.
"Buck Tom hisself has just bin here, an' might have agreed to guide you
to Traitor's Trap if you'd made him a good offer."

"Why did you not awake me?" asked the Englishman in a reproachful tone,
as he sprang up, grasped his blanket hastily, threw down a piece of
money on the counter, and asked if the road wasn't straight and easy for
a considerable distance.

"Straight as an arrow for ten mile," said the landlord, as he laid down
the change which the Englishman put into an apparently well-filled
purse.

"I'll guide you, stranger, for five dollars," said Crux.

"I want no guide," returned the other, somewhat brusquely, as he left
the room.

A minute or two later he was heard to pass the door on horseback at a
sharp trot.

"Poor lad, he'll run straight into the wolf's den; but why he wants to
do it puzzles me," remarked the landlord, as he carefully cleaned a
tankard. "But he would take no warning."

"The wolf doesn't seem half as bad as he's bin painted," said Hunky Ben,
rising and offering to pay his score.

"Hallo, Hunky--not goin' to skip, are ye?" asked Crux.

"I told ye I was in a hurry. Only waitin' to rest my pony. My road is
the same as the stranger's, at least part o' the way. I'll overhaul an'
warn him."

A few minutes more and the broad-shouldered scout was also galloping
along the road or track which led towards the Rocky mountains in the
direction of Traitor's Trap.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN.

HUNKY BEN IS SORELY PERPLEXED.

It was one of Hunky Ben's few weaknesses to take pride in being well
mounted. When he left the tavern he bestrode one of his best steeds--a
black charger of unusual size, which he had purchased while on a trading
trip in Texas--and many a time had he ridden it while guiding the United
States troops in their frequent expeditions against ill-disposed
Indians. Taken both together it would have been hard to equal, and
impossible to match, Hunky Ben and his coal-black mare.

From the way that Ben rode, on quitting the tavern, it might have been
supposed that legions of wild Indians were at his heels. But after
going about a few miles at racing speed he reined in, and f