turn presented them to Captain Jack Hayes. The captain liked them so
well that he did not rest till every man jack of us had two apiece.

"Directly," mused the ancient one, with a smile of pleasant
recollection, "we had a fight with the Comanches--up here above San
Antonio. Hayes had fifteen men with him--he was doubling about the
country for Indians. He found 'sign,' and after cutting their trail
several times he could see that they were following him. Directly the
Indians overtook the Rangers--there were seventy-five Indians. Captain
Hayes--bless his memory!--said,' They are fixin' to charge us, boys, and
we must charge them.' There were never better men in this world than
Hayes had with him," went on the Colonel with pardonable pride; "and
mind you, he never made a fight without winning.

"We charged, and in the fracas killed thirty-five Indians--only two of
our men were wounded--so you see the five-shooters were pretty good
weapons. Of course they wa'n't any account compared with these modern
ones, because they were too small, but they did those things. Just after
that Colonel Colt was induced to make bigger ones for us, some of which
were half as long as your arm.

"Hayes? Oh, he was a surveyor, and used to go out beyond the frontiers
about his work. The Indians used to jump him pretty regular; but he
always whipped them, and so he was available for a Ranger captain. About
then--let's see," and here the old head bobbed up from his chest, where
it had sunk in thought--"there was a commerce with Mexico just sprung
up, but this was later--it only shows what that man Hayes used to do.
The bandits used to waylay the traders, and they got very bad in the
country. Captain Hayes went after them--he struck them near Lavade, and
found the Mexicans had more than twice as many men as he did; but he