far out of
range. He raised himself to a sitting posture, took off his hat and
waved it at the guards, and then settled down and kept on his way,
taking care, however, to watch against all chances of pursuit. The fact
was that his escape had been reported to the major, who, out of all
patience, exclaimed: "Let him go!"

Elam was now a free man once more, and he resolved that it would be a
long time before he would again trust himself in the power of the
soldiers. His first care must be to go back to the sheep-herder's cabin
in which he had camped the night before he reached the fort, and get his
saddle and bridle, for he rightly concluded that the savages had been so
anxious to capture him that they had not time to go in and see if he had
left anything behind him. It required considerable nerve to do this, but
Elam had already shown that he had a good share of it. He had not gone
many miles on his way until he began to meet some sheep-herders and
cattle-men who were fleeing from their homes and going to the fort for
protection. The men were generally riding on ahead, and the women came
after them in wagons drawn by mules. He waved his hat whenever he came
within sight, for fear that the men might shoot at him, and he knew by
experience that they could handle their rifles with greater skill than
the soldiers could handle their muskets.

"Where you going?" demanded one of the men, as he galloped up to meet
Elam. "Seen any Indians around here?"

"There were plenty of them here this morning," said Elam. "Did they come
near you?"

"Well, I should say so. They've jumped down on us when we wasn't looking
for them, and I've got one brother in the wagon that's been laid out.
You must have been in a rucus with them, judging by the looks of your
hand and the horse."

"Yes, I got into a fight with them right along here somewhere, and I
didn't go to the fort without sending one of them up. There was no need
of my going there at all, but I went to shut off some trade that wasn't
exactly square. There are no Indians between here and the fort."

"Well, I wish you would ride by the wagon and tell that to my old woman,
will you? She is scared half to death. Where are you going?"

Elam replied that he was going to the sheep-herder's ranch to get a
saddle and bridle that he had left there, and after that he was going
back to the mountains. He had a partner there, and he didn't know
whether he was alive or dead. He had had enough of