"We"ll pile up the camp, anyway."
"They"re around somewhere."
"Let"s take their burros."
"Take their flags."
Then General Ashley spoke up.
"No, you don"t!" he said. "You let those things alone."
That voice, coming out of the darkness around, must have made them jump, and for a minute they didn"t know what to do. Then--
"Why?" asked Bill Duane, kind of defiantly.
"Wait a moment and we"ll show you," answered General Ashley.
He whistled loud, our Scouts" signal whistle; and off down the trail Major Henry or Kit Carson whistled back, and added the whistle that meant "All right." (Note 16.)
"Hear that?" asked General Ashley. "That means we"ve got your horses!"
Hurrah! So we had. You see, Major Henry and Kit Carson had been sent back to watch the enemy"s camp; and when the gang had left, on foot, to surprise us, our two scouts had gone in and captured the horses. We couldn"t help but whoop and yell a little, in triumph. But General Ashley ordered "Silence!" and we quit.
"Aw, we were just fooling," said Tony Matthews. They talked together, low, for a few moments; and Bill called: "Come on in. We won"t hurt you."
"Of course you won"t," said General Ashley. "But _we_ aren"t fooling. We mean business. We"ll keep the horses until you"ve promised to clear out and let this camp alone."
"We don"t want the horses. Two of "em are hired and the longer you keep them the more you"ll have to pay." That was a lie. They didn"t hire horses. They borrowed.
"We can sleep here very comfortably, kid," said Mike Delavan.
"You"ll not get much sleep in those beds," retorted General Ashley.
"Will they, boys!"
And we all laughed and said "No!"
"And after they"ve walked ten miles back to town, we"ll bring in the horses and tell how we took them."
The enemy talked together low, again.
"All right," said Bill Duane. "You give us our horses and we"ll let the camp alone."
"Do you promise?" asked General Ashley.
"Yes; didn"t I say so?"
"Do you, Mike?"
"Sure; if you return those horses."
"Do you, Tony and Bert?"
"Uh huh."
That was the best way--to make each promise separately; for some one of them might have claimed that he hadn"t promised with the rest.
"Then go on down the trail, and you"ll find the horses where you left them."
"How do we know?"
"On the honor of a Scout," said General Ashley. "We won"t try any tricks, and don"t you, for we"ll be watching you until you start for town."
They grumbled back, and with Bill Duane in the lead stumbled for the trail. General Ashley whistled the signal agreed upon, for Major Henry and Kit Carson to tie the horses and to withdraw. We might have followed the enemy; but we would have risked dividing our forces too much and leaving the camp. We were safer here.
So we waited, quiet; and after a time somebody signaled with the whistle of the patrol. It was Kit Carson.
"They"ve gone, sir," he reported, when General Ashley called him.
"What did they say?"
"They"re mad; but they"re going into town and they"ll get back at us later."
"You saw them start, did you?"
"Yes, sir."
"Where"s Henry?"
"Waiting to see if they turn or anything."
"They won"t. They know we"ll be ready for them. Shall we move camp, or post sentries, boys?"
We voted to post sentries. It seemed an awful job to move camp, at this time of night, and make beds over again, and all that. It was only ten o"clock by General Ashley"s watch, but it felt later. So we built up the fire, and set some coffee on, and called Major Henry in, and General Ashley and Jed Smith took the first spell of two hours; then they were to wake up Fitzpatrick and me, for the next two hours; and Major Henry and Kit Carson would watch from two till four, when it would be growing light. But we didn"t have any more trouble that night.
CHAPTER III
THE BIG TROUT
It was mighty hard work, turning out at five o"clock in the morning.
That was regulations, while on the march--to get up at five. The ones who didn"t turn out promptly had to do the dirty work--police the camp, which is to clean it, you know.
Fitzpatrick the Bad Hand cooked; I helped, by opening packages, preparing potatoes (if we had them), tending fire, etc.; Major Henry chopped wood; Kit Carson and little Jed Smith looked after the burros, Apache and Sally, and scouted in a circle for hostile sign; General Ashley put the bedding in shape to pack.
But first it was regulations to take a cold wet rub when we were near water. It made us glow and kept us in good shape. Then we brushed our teeth and combed our hair. (Note 17.) After breakfast we policed the camp, and dumped everything into a hole, or burned it, so that we left the place just about as we had found it. We stamped out the fire, or put dirt and water on it, of course. Then we packed the burros. General Ashley, Jed Smith, and Kit Carson packed Sally; Major Henry, Thomas Fitzpatrick, and I packed Apache. And by six-thirty we were on our way.