I explained to him the changes of my plans which had been brought about by the accident to the _River Belle_.
"Lieutenant Belknap tells me that you are going through to Laramie with him," I added.

"As it chances, we have the same errand--it is my purpose also to call on Colonel Meriwether there, in case we do not meet him coming down." "How extraordinary! Then we'll be fellow travelers for a time, and I hope have a little sport together.

Fine young fellow, Belknap.

And I must say that his men, although an uncommonly ragged looking lot and very far from smart as soldiers, have rather a workmanlike way about them, after all." "Yes, I think they would fight," I remarked, coolly.

"And from the look of things, they may have need to." I told him then of what he had discovered at the station house near by, and added the caution not to mention it about the camp.