Things went on this way, we repeat, when one day that Frank was busy with some story of his cowboy’s life, we heard a terrible clatter of horses’ hoofs approaching the house. Frank and Lem were on hand in an instant, and, with their revolvers in their hands, went out to see what was the matter, but there was no sign of Henderson or Coyote Bill in the men who drew up at the door. Two of them were soldiers and the other a civilian, and their appearance indicated that they had been through something of a fight. One of the soldiers’ heads was all bloody, in spite of the handkerchief that had been bound around it, and the horse of the civilian seemed ready to drop from a wound in his side.
“What’s up? Indians?” demanded Frank.
“Yes, and they’re most here,” returned the civilian. “Can you give us a bite to eat and change our horses for us?”
“Indians!” repeated Bob. “Come in and sit down. You can have all the horses you want. But Indians!” he added with a shudder. “In all the eight years we have been in this part of the country we have never known them to come so far South before.”
“Well, you will hear them coming now if you stay here,” said one of the soldiers. “You had better catch up and go with us.”
“Why, how did you manage to get on to them, anyway?” I asked, for like the rest I had been so overcome with astonishment that I could not say anything. “You look as though you have been in a hard fight.”
“You may safely say that, and the way they went about it satisfies me that there were some white men bossing the job,” said the soldier. “You see there were twenty-five of us detailed to act as guard to our paymaster, who had a lot of money—I don’t know how much—to pay off the men at Fort Worth. We were going safely along through a pass, within a day’s journey of the fort, when they jumped on us. I tell you I never saw bullets fly so thick before.”
“Did they kill almost all the guard at one fire?” asked Bob.
“They got about half of us, and where the rest are now I don’t know. Some got through to the fort probably, and the rest of us, being cut off, had to save ourselves the best way we could.”
“Lem, you and Frank bring up a horse for each of us,” said Bob suddenly. His face was pale, but I saw that he had his wits about him. “You may turn the rest loose, for we have all got to go now. I wish those boys who were out with the stock had warning.”