After dinner we were told information had been dropped at the hotels and business places that we were here to meet a director of the Colorado Navigation Company. We also learned that the steamer Cocopah had also arrived from up-river the day before, and was now at her landing, two miles below town, waiting the return of the director from Wickenburg. Both Mr. Gray and Mr. Baldwin thought the horse-thieves were suspicious of out presence, for they had not placed the stolen ponies in any of the corrals or stables of the town. A horse-race was advertised to come off in the afternoon, half a mile below the steamboat landing, and Texas Dick and Juan Brincos had entered horses for the stakes.
Mr. Gray advised that none of our party should attend the race, saying that our absence would give the thieves a greater sense of security, and improve our chances of regaining the ponies.
Believing his convictions to be correct, I sent an order to the escort not to go south of the town during the day, and telling Frank and Henry to amuse themselves about the streets and the immediate vicinity of the town, started with Mr. Gray to look up and rent a building for a military storehouse.
[to be continued.]
A VIRGINIA CAVALIER.[1]
BY MOLLY ELLIOT SEAWELL.
CHAPTER VIII.
