t eat much. We drank some milk, and stuffed down
some bread and butter; and by that time Fitz and Scout Ward had the
horses led out. We heard the hoofs, and in came Ward, to tell us.

"Horses are ready," he announced.

Out we went. No time was to be lost. They even had saddled them--Fitz
working with his one hand! So all we must do was to climb on. The women
had told us the trail, and they had given us an old heavy coat apiece.
Nights are cold, in the mountains.

"You know how, do you?" queried Fitz of me.

"Yes."

"That gray horse is the easiest," called one of the women, from the
door.

"Let Jim take it, then," spoke Van.

But I had got ahead of him by grabbing the bay.

"Jim is used to riding," explained Fitz.

"So am I," answered Van.

"Not these saddles, Van," put in Ward. "They're different. The stirrups
of the gray are longer, a little. They'll fit you better than they'll
fit Jim."

Van had to keep the gray. It didn't matter to me which horse I rode, and
it might to him from the East; so I was glad if the gray was the easier.

We were ready.

"We'll take care of Tom till you bring the doctor," said Fitz.

"We'll bring him."

"So long. Be Scouts."

"So long."

A quick grip of the hand from Fitz and Ward, and we were off, out of the
light from the opened door where stood the two women, watching, and into
the dimness of the light. Now for a forty-mile night ride, over a
strange trail--twenty miles to the mines and twenty miles back. We would
do our part and we knew that Fitz and Ward would do theirs in keeping
the major safe.

That appeared a long ride. Twenty miles is a big stretch, at night, and
when you are so anxious.

We were to follow on the main trail for half a mile until we came to a
bridge. But before crossing the bridge there was a gate on the right,
and a hay road through a field. After we had crossed the field we would
pass out by another gate, and would take a trail that led up on top of
the mesa. Then it was nineteen miles across the mesa, to the mines. The
mines would have a light. They were running night and day.

We did not say much, at first. We went at fast walk and little trots, so
as not to wind the horses in the very beginning. We didn't dash away,
headlong, as you sometimes read about, or see in pictures. I knew
better. Scouts must understand how to treat a horse, as well as how to
treat themselves, on the march.

This was a dark night, because it was cloudy. Ther