When I returned our new camp was
established, fires burning, and cooking well under way.
Captain Bayard informed me that the detachment of Mexican cavalry
which had accompanied us thus far would leave at this point and not
rejoin us. "I have ordered Baldwin to grain his horses and be ready to
start in search of our boys at daybreak," continued the captain. "You
will accompany him. We shall be in no danger, with Hubbell so near.
You can take thirty pounds of grain on your saddles, and you will find
plenty of water on the Carizo where it breaks from the hills."
"How many days are we to stay out?"
"You are to take five days' rations. If the boys are not found in that
time I fear they will never be found."
I went to bed early, and soon fell into a fitful slumber, which lasted
until an hour before midnight. I arose, dressed, and sat down by the
smouldering camp-fire, a prey to unpleasant reflections.
Suddenly the sound of a cantering horse approaching from the north
fell upon my ears. What could it mean? I listened intently.
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