"Very likely. It will be an agreeable change for you. Life here is not very enjoyable for boys." "I should say not," said Henry. "At Santa Fe there was plenty of fun. Of course we had to study there; but that made play all the more pleasant. Then we could go hunting now and then, or gathering piñons; but here we can't look outside of the fort unless a dozen soldiers are along, for fear the Apaches will get us." "But you can go to Prescott." "Prescott!" in a tone of great contempt. "Twenty-one log cabins and stores, and not a boy in the place--only a dozen Pike County, Missouri, girls." "And we can't go there with any comfort since Texas Dick and Jumping Jack stole Sancho and Chiquita," added Frank. Further conversation was temporarily interrupted by the arrival of the expressman. A roan bronco galloped up the slope bearing a youthful rider wearing a light buckskin suit and a soft felt hat with a narrow brim. He was armed with a breech-loading carbine and two revolvers, and carried, attached to his saddle, a roll of blankets and a mail-pouch. Dismounting, he detached the pouch, at the same time answering questions and giving us items of news later than any contained in his despatches. After handing his pouch to the quartermaster-sergeant, his eyes fell upon the boy sergeants. "I saw Texas Dick and Juan Brincos at Cisternas Negras," he said, addressing them. "My! Did you, Mr. Baldwin?" exclaimed Henry, springing to his feet and approaching the courier. "Did they have our ponies?" "You know I never saw your ponies; but Dick was mounted on a black, and Juan on a cream-color." "Sancho!" said Frank. "Chiquita!" said Henry. "Do you know where they were bound?" asked Captain Bayard. "I did not speak to them, nor did they see me. I dared not hold communication in a lonely place with such desperate characters. I learned from a friend of theirs at Date Creek that they were going to open a monte bank at La Paz." "Then they are likely to stay there some time." "Can't something be done, sir, to get the ponies back?" asked Frank. "Perhaps so. I will consider the matter." The mail was taken to the office of the Quartermaster, and soon distributed through the command. Among my letters was one from Colonel Burton, the father of the boy sergeants. He said he had expected to send for his sons by this mail, but additional detached service had been required of him which might delay their departure from Whipple for another month, if not longer. He informed me that a detail which I had received to duty as professor of military science and tactics in a boys' military school had been withheld by the Department Commander until my services could be spared at Fort Whipple, and that he thought the next mail or the one following it would bring an order relieving me and ordering me East. This would enable me to leave for the coast the first week in November.