hough he had not the slightest suspicion of it.

Uncle Dick, in telling the story, said: "They left at an early hour,
going in an opposite direction from their camp, and I closed my doors
soon after, for the night. They had not been gone more than half an
hour, when I heard them talking not far from my house, and a few seconds
later I heard the half-suppressed cry of a man who has received his
death-blow.

"I had gone to bed, and lay for a minute or two thinking whether I
should get up and go to the rescue or insure my own safety by remaining
where I was.

"A little reflection convinced me that the murderers were undoubtedly
watching my house, to prevent any interference with the carrying out
of their plot, and that if I ventured out I should only endanger my own
life, while there was scarcely a possibility of my being able to save
the life of the man who had been assailed.

"In the morning, when I got up, I found the dead body of the corporal
stretched across Raton Creek, not more than a hundred yards from my
house.

"As I surmised, he had been struck with a heavy club or stone, and it
was at that time that I heard his cry. After that his brains had been
beaten out, and the body left where I had found it.

"I at once notified Captain Haley of the occurrence, and identified the
men who had been in company with the corporal, and who were undoubtedly
his murderers.

"They were taken into custody, and made a confession, in which they
stated that one of their number had stood at my door on the night of the
murder to shoot me if I had ventured out to assist the corporal. Two of
the scoundrels were hung afterward at Las Vegas, and the third sent to
prison for life."

The corporal was buried near where the soldiers were encamped at
the time of the tragedy, and it is his lonely grave which frequently
attracts the attention of the passengers on the Atchison, Topeka, and
Santa Fe trains, just before the Raton tunnel is reached, as they travel
southward.

In 1866-67 the Indians broke out, infesting all the most prominent
points of the Old Santa Fe Trail, and watching an opportunity to rob and
murder, so that the government freight caravans and the stages had to
be escorted by detachments of troops. Fort Larned was the western limit
where these escorts joined the outfits going over into New Mexico.

There were other dangers attending the passage of the Trail to
travellers by the stage besides the attacks of the savages