Mr. Wentworth, picking up one of his boys and
then lowering him carefully to the ground. "Mum is the word, if you say
so. But I haven't heard you tell Ackerman to give me that rifle yet."

"Neither have I heard you make that promise," was the reply.

"Well, I'll make it, but I tell you I hate to, mightily."

The captain smiled, and nodded to George, who rode up and handed over
the Winchester.

"She's a good one, cap, and when she speaks she means business--_she_
does," said Mr. Wentworth, holding the recovered weapon off at arm's
length and gazing at it with admiring eyes. "She is sure death on
Kiowas, for she knows I have got something ag'inst them. She rubbed out
ten of 'em during the last fight she was in, and she'll spoil the good
looks of many more of them before I hand her over to my oldest boy for
good.--Put her on your shoulder, Sheldon, and come on."

Lifting his youngest child in his arms, Mr. Wentworth walked away,
Sheldon marching proudly by his side with the rifle on his shoulder, and
the horse following quietly at his heels. Then Bob and George rode away
with the squad, the troopers gradually dispersed, and the captain and
his officers went back to the blankets on which they had been dozing
away the time while waiting for Corporal Owens.

If it had not been for the fact that he had nearly a thousand head of
recaptured stock on his hands, the captain would have set out for the
fort at once; but it is almost impossible to drive Texas cattle during
the night, for they are about half wild, anyway, and as easily stampeded
as a herd of buffaloes. Under favorable circumstances two men who
understand their business can take care of a herd of five hundred of
them; but this stock which the captain had just recovered from the
Indians had grown so unmanageable during the short time they had been in
the possession of the raiders, who had pushed them ahead night and day
at their greatest speed, that it took thirty well-mounted troopers to
keep them within bounds. If they became quieted down during the night,
the captain intended to set out for the fort with the main body of his
men early the next morning, leaving a few of his troopers to assist Mr.
Wentworth to drive the cattle in.

"I say, corporal," exclaimed Carey as Bob led his squad away, "where
does Wentworth hang out? What mess does he grub with?"

"I don't know," answered Bob. "I saw him going toward the other end of
the camp."

"Now, such work as tha