until they had greeted each other, he offered him a liberal reward
if he would ride post haste to Santa Fe and deliver a letter to
the Governor, containing an urgent request to send a strong force
to escort the train thither.

Carson unhesitatingly accepted the offer and with his usual promptness
started almost immediately on his delicate and dangerous business.
The journey was one of several hundred miles through a country
swarming with Indians, and all the skill, cunning and vigilance of
the great scout would be required to succeed. But he never faltered
in the face of peril.

A veteran mountaineer agreed to keep him company, but, when Bent's
Fort was reached he refused to go further, and Carson, as he had
often done before in critical situations, went on alone.

The news which he heard at the fort was of a startling nature. The
Utah Indians were hostile and his long journey led him directly
through their country. He could not censure his friend for declining
to go further, nor could he blame others whom he asked to accompany
him, when they shook their heads. Mr. Bent understood the peculiar
danger in which Kit would be placed, and though he was splendidly
mounted, he loaned him a magnificent steed which he led, ready to
mount whenever the necessity should arise for doing so.

That journey was one of the most remarkable of the many made by Kit
Carson. It would have been less so, had he possessed a companion
of experience, for they could have counselled together, and one
would have kept watch while the other slept. As it was, Carson was
compelled to scan every portion of the plain before him, on the