“Where are they?” asked Kit Carson.
“We don’t know exactly, but we suspect that they have gone to one of the strongest of the Indian villages.”
“Will they fight?”
“I think they will.”
“Then we will go,” said the guide quickly. “You tell the padre that we’ll help him out. How many men does he want?”
“All you can spare.”
“Tell him we’ll be at the mission to-morrow morning. There will be as many of us as care to go, whether it is the whole eighteen or only one.”
“You will be the one?” inquired the stranger.
“I will be one,” laughed Kit Carson, “but I do not think I will be the only one.”
Reuben had been silent throughout the conversation and seldom had turned his face away from the man who had brought the message from the San Gabriel Mission.