The duties of farming and hunting were only once interrupted during
the summer which Kit Carson thus enjoyed with his family. The exploit
which called him, on this occasion, from his home, was caused by an
effort to save the lives of two well known traders. To accomplish
this, he assumed the character and duties of a detective police
officer. The circumstances of the case were as follows.

An American, by the name of Fox, had organized a party to accompany as
a guard over the plains, and, while professedly engaged in this duty,
to murder Messrs. Brevoort and Weatherhead, two gentlemen who were
traveling into the United States, as the rascal and party supposed,
with a large sum of money which they expected to expend in the
purchase of goods to be used for trading purposes. Fox played his part
so well that when he offered himself and men as an escort, the offer
was accepted by the intended and unsuspicious victims, as if it had
been a mark of particular favor. Before the route was entered upon,
Fox visited Taos for the purpose of enlisting among his band of
desperadoes, a fellow who resided in that town. He was a person
who bore a very bad character, but for some reason, which has never
transpired, he refused to go; yet, proving true as a wicked confidant,
he waited until he thought his friend Fox was sufficiently advanced on
the road to accomplish his hellish purposes without any chance of his
being overtaken and arrested. He then saw fit to divulge the plot.

Every new country is the favorite place of resort for desperadoes and
rascals of all grades, who cannot live in their native districts on
account of their many crimes.

Until the machinery of law and order begins to work smoothly, these