“They will go to the fort with us and be ready to come back with the cattle to-morrow. The soldiers and teamsters rounded them up for you, and I guess they are all there,” he continued, addressing himself to Thompson. “I am surprised at you,” he continued, when the captain had brought the men around and headed them toward the fort. “I am sorry I told you so much.”
“Now, Carl, see here,” said Thompson, lowering his voice almost to a whisper. “You need not have him captured unless you want to.”
“How shall we prevent it? The colonel will send some men to the ranch to-morrow, and when they get their hands on him he is booked for the military prison at Leavenworth.”
“Look here,” said Thompson, lowering his voice so that no one but Carl could hear it. “I have six men with me, and how does this captain know but I have a hundred? Send Bert back and tell him to escape. I’ll bet you that they won’t see him after that.”
It would seem from this that Carl kept the ranchmen posted on everything that happened to him at the fort. When he came home after his captivity among the Sioux, he told them all that occurred to him—how Harding had threatened to shoot him because of the death of Sitting Bull, but had suddenly grown merciful to him when he saw that the Indians were determined to have revenge on him, and how he had assisted him to keep out of their way. Thompson felt kinder toward Harding after that, and so did all the herdsmen; and when they found that Carl was anxious to have him escape, there was not one man who had a word to say against it.
“Well, go and tell Bert to come here,” said Carl, after thinking a moment. “You know what sort of a guard he is under, don’t you? Now you tell him how you will arrange it.”
Thompson reined in his horse, and was gone but a few moments when he rode up again with Bert at his side. In a few whispered words he told Bert just what he had to do, and he understood it. He was pulling up his horse to let the column get a little in advance of him, when Carl said earnestly:
“Tell him that this is the last time I shall befriend him. He helped me to escape once when I stood a chance of being staked out, and now I have paid him back. If he ever gets into trouble with the soldiers again, he will have to stand the result of his misdeeds.”
The captain did not know how many men were with Thompson, and consequently he did not miss one of their number, who was going at his best pace toward the ranch to warn the squawman that the soldiers were coming to-morrow to arrest him. As Thompson had said, “You would not see him very much after that.” If he once got out of that ranch and felt a good horse under him, he would kill him before he would ever be found in that department again.
The column pursued their way at an easy gait, and when they came within sight of the cattle, Thompson and his men went down to relieve the teamsters and soldiers who had been keeping guard over them, and the rest rode on into the fort. Some few of the teamsters were awake as Carl went in, and wanted to know all about it; but the young scout told them that the Sioux had been whipped, and had made their way back to their reservation.