There they'll get good water for thar stock, an' the shade o' trees to rest unner; the which last they'll take to in this hottish spell o' sun." "If they're upon the Pecan," puts in a third speaker, a tall, lathy individual, in a green blanket coat, badly faded, "and anywhere near its mouth, we can't be more than five miles from them.

I know this part of the country well.

I passed through it last year along with the Santa Fe expedition." "Only five miles!" exclaims another man, whose dress bespeaks a planter of respectability, while his woe-begone countenance proclaims him to be one of the bereaved.

"Oh, gentlemen I surely our horses are now rested enough.

Let us ride forward and fall upon them at once!" "We'd be durned foolish to do so," responded Cully.