"Rocket signals!" exclaimed Rogers. "By the blood of old Barney! it won't do for me to delay getting to the Stockade. Judging from their rockets, the manhunters must be closing in on it. If I'm going to reach there at all, it must be to-night. I can never get through in the daytime."
Rose and the others also beheld the signals, and in the face of the danger all the girl's anger against the outlaw vanished.
"Oh, Red! Did you see those rockets?" she inquired, with her old time interest in his welfare, as he rejoined his anxious companions.
"Sure I saw 'em," he replied. "Couldn't very well help it—unless I was blindfolded, like the scout."
At the mention of the luckless man he had led away, the girl drew her breath sharply.
"What did you do to him?" she demanded.
"It's none of your business, but I don't mind telling you," responded Rogers, his anger at Rose apparently forgotten. "I sent him with a message to the Fort."
"But he'll never get there!" protested the girl.
"Why not?"
"The horse doesn't know the way."