ter you!" He peered curiously at the young American
and shook his head. "I'm bettin' ye _do_ leave on th' jump, if yer lucky
enough ter leave at all. Ye'll need fresh hosses, another change o'
clothes an' a cache o' grub. Tell ye what," he said, turning to Hank.
"Ye know that little mounting valley whar you an' me stopped fer two
days, that time we war helpin' find th' hosses that war run off Bent's
Vermajo rancho? Wall, I'll fix it so these hyar hosses will be waitin'
fer ye up thar. I got some men I kin trust as long as I'm playin' agin'
th' greasers. I'll cache ye some Dupont an' Galena, too," he offered,
referring to powder and lead. The latter came from Galena, Illinois,
and took its name from that place.

"An' forty pounds o' jerked meat a man," added Hank. "We might have ter
go clean up ter th' South Park afore we dast turn fer Bent's. Hang it on
that thar dead ash we used afore, or clost by if th' tree's down. We
better leave ye some more bullets as will fit our own weapons without no
doubt. We kin run more in th' warehouse in Santer Fe if we need 'em.
Keep yer Galena, Turley, an' leave some patches, instid, along with our
bullets."

"But we'll still be four arter we leave hyar," objected Jim.

"No, ye won't," replied Turley. "Ye'll show up in pairs, ye'll jine in
pairs, ye'll ride an' 'sociate in pairs, an' thar'll be a dozen more
mixin' up with ye. Wall, talk it over among ye while I gits busy afore
it's light," and the friendly rancher was swallowed up in the night.

A few minutes later Jacques, sleepy and grumbling, loomed up out of the
darkness, collected the six horses and departed up the slope. Shortly
after him came Turley with a miscellaneous collection of odds and ends
of worn-out clothing and soon his friends had exchanged a garment or two
with him. Tom and Hank parted with their buckskin shirts and now wore
coarse garments of Pueblo make; Zeb had a Comanche leather jerkin and
Jim wore a blue cotton shirt patched with threadbare red flannel. They
bound bands of beadwork or soft tanned skin around their foreheads, and
Hank's hair proudly displayed two iridescent bronze feathers from the
tail of a rooster. If Joe Cooper, himself, had come face to face with
them he would have passed by without a second glance.

Silently Zeb and Jim melted into the night, while Tom and Hank arose and
went around to the wall of the still house, rolled up in their
newly-acquired blankets against the base of the adobe w