with Sam."

The cavalcade were soon in motion, leaving the dead horses to be
devoured by the buzzards and coyotes which were already beginning to
gather around.

Arriving at Blue Jacket, the party left Chip and his prisoner, and
turning to the north cantered off for Kansas City.




CHAPTER XIII. SWANSON'S RANCHE--THE DETECTIVES IN ROBBER'S RETREAT--THE
SUCCESS OF THE DOCTOR--ANOTHER ROBBERY PLANNED.


In the center of a beautiful valley, with high, rugged bluffs rising on
all sides, and intersected by a clear stream of spring water, which fell
in tiny cascades and little waterfalls, turning and twisting like a
silver snake, stood Swanson's Ranche. The low frame building, surrounded
on four sides by a wide porch, and standing on a gentle elevation which
fell away to the creek, was the home of the redoubtable Swanson, who was
monarch of all he surveyed for miles around. The evening was rapidly
advancing into night, and the large open fireplace, huge and yawning,
was roaring with the cheerful fire which Swanson's obedient squaw had
built, that her liege lord might not be chilled by the cold wind which
whistled over the plains.

The floor of the large room, covered with fur rugs and huge buffalo-
skins, was made of pounded clay, and the feet of many years had hardened